{"id":588795,"date":"2026-04-06T09:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588795\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T09:10:13","slug":"graham-arnold-mobbed-by-iraqi-australians-at-sydney-airport-after-qualifying-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588795\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Arnold mobbed by Iraqi Australians at Sydney Airport, after qualifying for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Australian Iraqi community have swamped coach Graham Arnold at Sydney Airport, celebrating Iraq’s drought-breaking FIFA World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n

Last week the former Socceroos boss guided Iraq to a 2-1 win over Bolivia<\/a> in Mexico to secure a place in its first men’s World Cup in 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The players received a massive welcome in Baghdad over the weekend, parading through the city in an open-top bus as large crowds cheered and waved Iraqi flags.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Players received a grand reception in Baghdad to celebrate qualification. (Getty Images: Murtadha Al-Sudani)<\/p>\n

Arnold was unable to join those celebrations, but was greeted by hundreds of fans in Sydney who chanted, sang, and played drums.<\/p>\n

“Crazy, crazy. I didn’t expect this here in Australia. Obviously in Iraq. But it’s incredible,” Arnold told SBS.<\/p>\n

“First, I want to apologise to everyone in Iraq that I couldn’t go back there to celebrate due to the airspace shutdown.<\/p>\n

“Seeing this here is amazing. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

“I’m just very, very proud of the players and what they did, making many Iraqis happy is very important and that was the main thing.”<\/p>\n

\"Iraq<\/p>\n

Arnold took over as Iraq coach in May 2025. (Getty Images: Hector Vivas)<\/p>\n

As chants of “Arnie, Arnie, Arnie, oi, oi oi” rang through the terminal, one fan held a sign that said: “Arrived quietly, fulfilled 46 million dreams. Thank you Graham Arnold, you’re a legend!’<\/p>\n

Police helped escort Arnold away, who smiled as he took in the scene.<\/p>\n

Former Socceroos coach leads Iraq to first FIFA World Cup in 40 years<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has guided Iraq to their first FIFA World Cup appearance in 40 years with a playoff win over Boliva.<\/p>\n

“He came in to save us like the hero he is,” one young fan said.<\/p>\n

“I would love to thank him, we are all here to thank him with our true hearts.<\/p>\n

“We as Iraqis came here to support him and show him how much this means to us.”<\/p>\n

After a poor start to the qualification campaign with the Socceroos, Arnold resigned in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Tony Popovic took over soon after and Arnold has been at the helm of Iraq for the past 10 months.<\/p>\n

He will become the first Australian to coach two different countries at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Iraq is in a group with France, Norway, and Senegal.<\/p>\n

The tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, will kick off on June 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Australian Iraqi community have swamped coach Graham Arnold at Sydney Airport, celebrating Iraq’s drought-breaking FIFA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5844,64,63,16135,218721,1076,13198,85,21418],"class_list":{"0":"post-588795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fifa-world-cup","12":"tag-graham-arnold","13":"tag-iraq","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}