By Don Riddell, CNN
(CNN) — Iraq’s men’s national soccer team is just 90 minutes away from qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 40 years – in theory. Events far beyond the team’s control have reinforced the adage that the last mile is often the hardest.
On March 31, the Lions of Mesopotamia are due to play the winner of Bolivia and Suriname, who face off five days earlier, in a playoff qualifier for a berth in the 2026 World Cup. But the war in Iran and the violence that has spilled over into many other Middle Eastern countries means that Iraq almost certainly won’t be able to travel to the game in Monterrey, Mexico, in time.
Graham Arnold, the team’s Australian coach, told CNN Sports that most of his players and all his coaching staff are going to be stuck in Iraq until at least April 1, the day after the game is due to be played, because the airspace above the country has been closed.
“It’s stressful,” he explained. “It’s a big challenge. I’ve got about four or five plans at the moment, and obviously, they’re all different. A lot of sleepless nights worrying about getting that planning right.”
The Iraq Football Association (IFA) has formally requested world soccer governing body FIFA to delay the playoff game to allow the team to travel to Mexico, a source at the organization told CNN Sports. FIFA is expected to decide by the end of the week.
In the meantime, Arnold is made to stress. Not only is roughly 60% of his squad grounded in Iraq for the rest of the month, but his medical team is also stranded in Qatar and he’s stuck in Dubai, where he’d been scouting a couple of his players when the hostilities broke out on February 28. It’s a situation that Arnold compares to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when he was coaching the Australian national team
He said at that time he had had a plan “A, B, C, D, E and F to try to get through it,” but this time, his hands are completely tied, not just by the travel logistics, but also because embassy closures in the region are making it hard to obtain visas for either Mexico or the United States. He says a planned training camp in Houston, Texas, to acclimatize to the weather and time zone has already been scrapped.
With the airspace closed, the only remotely viable solution would be to bus the players out of Iraq, but Arnold says that’s a non-starter.
“A 30-hour bus trip to another nation, that’s not possible, that’s not healthy for the players, and then you’ve got the complications, again, of potential visas to get into those countries.”
Meanwhile, FIFA must now be preparing for the possibility that Iran could withdraw from the tournament, which is being co-hosted by the country that attacked them.
Mehdi Taj, the president of Iran’s Football Federation (FFIRI), cast doubt on his country’s participation when he said: “What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope.” Not since the 1950 tournament in Brazil has any team withdrawn from the competition after qualifying.
If Iran drops out, FIFA will need to find a replacement and Arnold is confident that the open berth should be awarded to his team.
“Iran is part of the Asian Football Confederation and so is Iraq; if Iran is out, we’re next in line,” he said.
The solution he proposes is that FIFA delays the playoff game against either Bolivia or Suriname until the week before the start of the World Cup, giving his team a fair chance to travel and p