Sport
Football is the most popular sport in Iraq. Football is a considerable uniting factor in Iraq, following years of war and unrest. Basketball, swimming, weightlifting, bodybuilding, boxing, kickboxing, and tennis are also popular sports.
The Iraqi Football Association (Arabic: الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraq national football team and the Iraq Super League (also known as Dawri Al-Nokba). It was founded in 1948, and has been a member of FIFA since 1950, and the Asian Football Confederation since 1971. The Iraqi national football team were the 2007 AFC Asian Cup Champions after defeating Saudi Arabia in the final.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Iraq
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delayed,
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o’er the green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.
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—George Orwell (1903–1950)