The Associated Press reported that the UK Home Office denied Iraqi soccer star Nashat Akram a work visa to play in the English Premier League because of rules requiring that national teams of non-European players be ranked in the world’s top 70 teams. Iraq’s national team, ranked at 72, “has been unable to move up in the rankings because it has been impossible to play any home matches due to fears of violence”:
The team, which practices outside Iraq, hasn’t played a home game in nearly 20 years because of fears of strife and U.N. sanctions under Saddam Hussein.
“Players do not have a secure enough atmosphere to develop their skills here,” said Ahmed Abbas, general secretary of the Iraqi Soccer Association. “Even abroad, we have technical problems in playing because we have difficulties in arranging flights for the players inside Iraq.”
After the Iraqi national team won the Asian Cup last July, team captain Younis Mahmoud called for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.