Twenty-eight months, 21 games, four rounds, a 117th-minute penalty and a playoff. A coach stuck in Dubai where he watches war start over the water, bombs shaking everything. A team trapped in Baghdad first and Jordan next, missiles flying around them. A scrambled 9,000-mile trip to Mexico where it all rests on one night, the very last country to make it. And, when they do finally land, the hero whose goal took them there is held up by the FBI and the man whose photographs are due to document history is turned back. There may never have been a journey to a World Cup quite like Iraq\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an experience,\u201d Graham Arnold says. And the 62-year-old Australian coach who led them through it all \u2013 the \u201cfootball nut\u201d who is their other \u201cdad\u201d and gets mobbed everywhere he goes \u2013 is adamant that it\u2019s not over yet. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to show the world what we\u2019ve got.\u201d Listening to him, you can\u2019t help but believe it. Not least because he did when no one else would.<\/p>\n
The day Arnold\u2019s agent called about the Iraq national team, he started by telling his client that an offer had arrived but he wouldn\u2019t want it. To which Arnold replied: why not? It was May 2025, less than a year since he had resigned as Australia coach because he felt \u201ccooked\u201d. Iraq had sacked Jes\u00fas Casas and almost the entire staff after a 2-1 defeat to Palestine in the third round of the Asian qualifiers. And they wanted an answer fast, Arnold given three days. The response seemed a no-brainer but that\u2019s the way he likes it, so he said yes instead. Twelve months later they landed in Chicago for their first World Cup since 1986.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first the family wasn\u2019t that supportive and friends were worried because of the perception of Iraq,\u201d Arnold admits, \u201cbut I was out of the game for six, seven months after the Socceroos and I was going a bit stir crazy. When you coach, every day you have a purpose, a challenge. When all of a sudden that\u2019s not there, mentally it\u2019s not easy to deal with, which is when I got the offer. There\u2019s one thing really: I\u2019m a football nut, I just love coaching. It was all about their team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had played Iraq over the years. One game sticks out in 2007 when they beat us [Australia] 3-1. Every time I watched them, it seemed to me that they had good players but there was something not right. I couldn\u2019t understand why they hadn\u2019t qualified for a World Cup. My decision was based on the players\u2019 quality. If they had qualified six or 10 years ago I probably wouldn\u2019t have done it but the fact that they hadn\u2019t qualified for 40 years was a great challenge, a great opportunity to make 46 million people proud and happy.<\/p>\n
Iraq fans in Baghdad revel in the 3-1 Asian Cup victory over Graham Arnold\u2019s Australia in 2007. Photograph: Karim Kadim\/AP<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re completely obsessed with football; I was shocked at how much passion there was,\u201d Arnold says. \u201cThe day I arrived in Baghdad was Real Madrid against Barcelona and it\u2019s a public holiday so everyone can watch. They watch the Premier League and everything. When top [Iraqi] teams play there are 30,000, 40,000, 50,000. And they were desperate to get to the World Cup, for the country\u2019s flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of that went on to the players. One of the first things I saw was that when the boys came into camp they were nearly having panic attacks because it was so much pressure. But I\u2019m big on psychology, big on the brain, big on building the belief, not just of the players as individuals but as a group. There\u2019s a lot of negativity around Iraq. They feel like, with the wars, they never get any luck in life, they don\u2019t get appreciated, that type of stuff. I saw 26 players obsessed with their telephones so I banned social media. If they do that, I\u2019m not going to select them. They\u2019ve realised social media is full of lies and negativity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arnold told them he was their dad and they were his boys. His staff were his brothers and thus their uncles. There were things he was determined to change and things he was determined not to. \u201cThe first day I wanted to do a presentation and four players turned up late. I said: \u2018If you\u2019re not prepared to be on time, you have no chance of qualifying\u2019. [But] I\u2019m Australian, I couldn\u2019t come and make everyone Australian. I lived in Baghdad for eight months because I wanted to work out what they were like as human beings, their culture, daily life. I had to change my ways. A small example: it\u2019s stinking hot \u2013 45C, 50C \u2013 so no one goes out during the day. They\u2019ll have dinner at 11 at night. That affects training sessions, so does prayer times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor was it just the coach. Nine of the squad were born in Europe: Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway and the UK. A couple had never been in the country and they too had to understand Iraq, Arnold says. Then there was the language. \u201cAbout 80% speak [Arabic] and that even affects on-field performance. When I started, I played the best players to their positions and strengths but then I realised some couldn\u2019t speak the language so there was no communication; what I\u2019ve done lately is pretty much English-speaking players on the left side of the field and Arabic on the right. And a centre-back and central midfielder who speak both so we can get the communication across, all on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 1-1 draw with Spain in a World Cup warm up has boosted Iraq\u2019s confidence. Photograph: Miguel Vidal\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Arnold arrived during the third round, Iraq finishing third. In the fourth, they missed out to Saudi Arabia on goals scored, with the coach calling it \u201cwrong\u201d for games to be played in supposedly \u201cneutral\u201d Saudi Arabia. In the fifth in November 2025, they drew 1-1 against United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi with five players missing. The day preparation for the return began in Basra, the electricity went, the bus broke down and the floodlights failed. Then there\u2019s the story of Arnold heading downstairs at the hotel to ask thousands of fans to keep quiet because he and his players couldn\u2019t sleep, the drummer replying: \u201cSure, coach, what time can we start up again?\u201d and being told 5pm \u2013 which they did on the dot.<\/p>\n
In the 17th minute of added time at the end of the return game, the referee was called to the pitchside monitor for a handball. Arnold hadn\u2019t seen it and he didn\u2019t see the penalty with which Amir al-Ammari put them through to the playoff either: he was hiding behind the bench with his interpreter, the former Sydney FC player Ali Abbas. Which, he says, isn\u2019t surprising given the penalties taken in training the night before. However, Al-Ammari scored and sent Iraq through to face Surinam or Bolivia in Monterrey, Mexico, but more serious obstacles followed. \u201cWith the wars going on there was a bit of a distraction,\u201d the coach says, which is one way of putting it.<\/p>\n
Aymen Hussein<\/a>Aymen Hussein<\/p>\n Arnold, who had been woken by the sound of helicopters at 4am and driven to Kuwait on advice from the Australian ambassador after the US embassy in Baghdad was evacuated seven months earlier, was in Dubai watching a player when Israel and the US attacked Iran on the morning of 28 February, killing Ali Khamenei. Barely 2km away across the water, he describes it as the loudest noise he\u2019s ever heard, the hotel moving. Due to fly back to Iraq to prepare for the playoff that day, en route to the airport he was told the airspace was closed. Arnold was stuck for 10 days, while his team and staff were trapped in Baghdad.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked Fifa to postpone the game. Fifa call it Fifa Fair Play. Well, it wasn\u2019t really fair that we couldn\u2019t get the players and the backroom staff out of Baghdad. They ended up helping, getting us a charter flight to Amman, Jordan. The players had to do a 28-hour bus trip. Then when they got there they were stuck for 36 hours because of the missiles and bombs going off around the hotel. Eventually they got to Lisbon and from there to Monterrey.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Iraqi players arrived at the hotel at 2am, Arnold was waiting for them. \u201cThe first thing I did was say: \u2018Right, what are we going to use this war as? An excuse? Or motivation? Because if it\u2019s going to be an excuse, we may as well go home today.\u201d<\/p>\n A mural of Aymen Hussein (No 18) in Baghdad highlights the passion for football in Iraq. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Iraq beat Bolivia 2-1<\/a>, taking the final World Cup place. The man who scored the winner, Aymen Hussein, was stopped at O\u2019Hare airport heading into the US for their final World Cup preparations. Two days later, the Somali referee Omar Artan was barred from entering<\/a>. \u201cEverything\u2019s fine 1781505196,\u201d Arnold says. \u201cAymen got interviewed with six other players. He got stuck for about eight hours with the FBI and US security [but] he\u2019s here with us, training well and seems fine. America have their ways with passports and visa control. It\u2019s sad and you want everything to be about football but these things happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIraqi airspace just closed again too, so probably the worst thing at the moment is that the players who were hoping to bring their families across for games can\u2019t get [them] out of Baghdad. Hopefully the airspace will get reopened and they can get here to watch their sons, husbands, family, make the country proud.\u201d<\/p>\n