Baghdad – IA
The coach of the Al-Minaa football team renewed his confidence in his players to achieve good results during the upcoming matches of the Iraq Stars League, stressing that he is continuing with the strategy of collecting and reaping points during the remaining matches of the first stage, especially in the matches that are held outside Basra, calling at the same time, for European referees to lead The VAR system in order to reduce the wrong decisions that occurred in the football competition
Coach Hassan Ahmed said in a statement exclusively to Al-Sabah newspaper, followed by the (INA), that “his current goal is to score points before the end of the first stage and move away from the Erbil, Naft Al-Basra and Najaf clubs, which are tied with Al-Safana with 17 points.”
He added: “We took over the task of coaching Al-Minaa after its modest results and its position in the standings declined due to the FIFA penalty. We decided to rely on the reserve and youth players, and within a short period of time we were able to perform at a good level and apply tactical sentences and team play, stressing the importance of the period of stopping the league for twenty days in the World Cup qualifiers.” “This is due to the participation of the national team as it is an ideal opportunity to prepare the players’ technical and physical needs and prepare for the upcoming rounds.”
Regarding his team’s readiness to host Dohuk the day after tomorrow, Thursday, in the seventeenth round of the Premier League, Ahmed explained that the confrontation will be difficult for both sides, as his team is in twelfth place with (17) points, while Dohuk is in third place with (27) points, and it has become necessary to The players benefited from the ground staff and the audience, and at the same time, the Mountain Falcons became one of the good teams and competed strongly for the first places and continued to achieve successive victories in their recent matches.”
He believed that “the current season witnessed many refereeing errors, and Al-Minaa had a share of them, as Al-Safana scored a goal against Al-Naft and the referee awarded it, but after returning to the VAR, the goal was cancelled, and the same is said about the penalty kick that was canceled for Al-Minaa against Zakho.”
Ahmed rejected the idea of the Football Association attracting referees from outside Iraq for the purpose of leading a number of matches because this underestimates local competencies, suggesting the use of foreign referees who specialize in the video assistant referee (VAR) system because the experience of their local counterparts is not sufficient and their lapses affected the referee’s decisions. Arena”.