He refuses to fly to Tehran, and that means he will be removed from the squad list by the coaching staff.
It's not about us playing in Iran, it's Meram who is being unreasonable. There is nothing that can happen to him. He's an American citizen. It's not like there can be a travel ban that will block him from returning to the US. And any idea that he'd be treated badly by the Iranians is ridiculous. He has Iraqi papers and is on the national team. He was assured by the FA's legal team that there is no problem, yet he insisted on rejecting the call up. This is on Justin, not anyone else.
Seems that we will get into more trouble. Players are struggling to obtain visas by Iranian embassies. This is mind boggling. We are already in a disadvantage playing at neutral venues while every team in our group can play their home games at home. On top of it, we are losing players because of administrative issues. I hope we'll get over this failed campaign as soon as possible, and that FIFA lifts the ban on Iraq. And last but not least, find the one responsible for this decision. Playing our home games in Iran is probably one of our biggest mistakes ever made.
This mess only shows how much of a struggle it is for us that we can't play in Iraq. We always have problems with player visa's, or facilities or other external factors. If we could play in Iraq we can prepare and play our games on our own terms with an entire stadium of Iraqi fans supporting the team.
I hope that they make it clear to Meram that he shouldn't come back to the NT if he insists on skipping this match. This reminds me of what Younis said in the interview about expats.. No player is above the NT, and rules are rules.
24 man squad released. Brwa Nouri, Justin Meram, Mazen Fayad and Hussam Kadhim dropped. I supported Radhi from the first day he was appointed, but this is unacceptable. He drops our only proper midfielder? We only have Attwan in the squad ya Radhi, and we all know he's not ready yet!! He is completely losing it..
Brwa out and Osama not even in his plans when our midfield is garbage is insanity. Either it's corruption, or Radhi is utterly incompetent. It makes no sense. We have one good midfielder in the entire team now. Expect a thrashing against Australia. A team that can't control the ball wont create any chances and will struggle to remove pressure from the defense.
I wanted him in the team but I don't like his attitude. Lack of respect shown to his teammates to say he's better than all of them. If his attitude is why Radhi left him out, then I agree with him. We don't want egocentric players disrupting the team. (This pic isn't me talking to Brwa btw, it's from the Kooora forums.) Nonetheless, Osama Rashid definitely should be in the squad. But it seems Radhi wants to put all his trust in Amjad Attwan. He's definitely not good enough and I don't know why Radhi is doing this, but at least if he keeps playing big games like this, he will learn and gain experience. These qualifiers are pretty much pointless anyway so may as well try and look at the positives...
Saad Natiq is injured, Ali Bahjat called up as replacement. I think this could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe Faez or Sulaka will get a chance now.. (but probably Nadhim)
Ffs from having potentially a very strong midfield in yaser/saad/osama/Brwa .... to shit now . Our team selections are always wrong and weird .
Meram has lost his mind. He can travel to Iran easily with Iraqi papers. Even the US wrestling team was in Iran last month and they had zero issues.
FIFA handed it over to AFC regarding the lifting of our ban. AFC will send a delegation tommorow which will check the requirements to host international matches. @Iraqfpg
For the first time ever, the Iraqi women's national team has a higher FIFA ranking than the men's team.
I think we have bigger problems than the FIFA ranking. It will eventually go up if we manage to get our shit together. Let's first solve our other problems.
It's not an irrevesable disaster, but it shows how steadily we've been falling in terms of results over the past 2 years.
I kind of feel that I've read these words multiple times before. Not criticizing you, but it feels like they're crying wolf.
The thing about the home ban that I'm concerned about is whether or not they've already determined if Iraq is safe enough to host games. We definitely have great facilities, but safety is the main issue for other teams and the AFC. I think that the ban will be lifted temporarily, we might play a friendly or two, and it will be imposed again after that. We've seen this game before. Not encouraging that bahraini officials will make the final decision.
Radhi Shnaishil has been fired. It all depends on who replaces him and whether there are changes within the FA now. If we replace him with another Iraqi coach and guys like Kamil Zughayer stay where they are, then nothing will change. It's not just the coach, it's the entire FA which is the problem. Right now big names like Younis Mahmoud, Ahmed Radhi, Bassim Abbas, Nashat Akram have voiced support for the protesters against the FA. We'll see soon if this is just to get the fans to shut up or not.
Great move. Let's bring Basim Qasim or Ali Hadi to the NT. Maybe they will make a change.. or not? ******** this FA, I'm done with all of them..
They fired him because they are trying to save their asses from the fans. We need stability in the team, we need a new FA. Ahmed radhi sounds like a good candidate