2023-12-30T09:04:02+00:00
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/ The Kurdistan Region clubs boycotted the meetings of the Iraqi Football Association held today, Saturday, to discuss the regular general agenda of the association, which generated astonishment from the association’s board of directors and the general assembly, which attended with the exception of the region’s clubs.
Agency followed up on what happened and surveyed the opinions of the heads of the region’s clubs about the reason for their boycott of today’s meeting, while the head of the Football Association, Adnan Darjal, described what happened as “unfortunate” and held the federal government (the Iraqi Council of Ministers) responsible.
The head of Erbil Club told Agency, “We feel very wronged by the Kurdistan clubs for not paying us the same amount of money as the other clubs,” explaining that “the Kurdistan clubs have served and continue to serve Iraqi football in all matters.”
He added, “What is our fault as a Kurdish club that we are deprived of receiving dues allocated to Iraqi clubs, especially since our clubs are more affected than the clubs in Baghdad, as we have trips every three days to play league matches in order to make them successful, and this costs us huge sums of money. Those concerned should have appreciated our situation and counted it among the clubs in Iraq, and we are the same.”
He said, “Demanding our rights is legitimate in order to complete our journey in the Premier League, which is the reason for our absence from today’s meeting,” adding that “our relationship remains good with the Federation and the Iraqi clubs.”
For his part, Zakho Club President Ammar Farhad told Agency that boycotting today’s meeting at the Football Association came because of the injustice done to the Kurdish clubs.
He explained that the grant approved by the Council of Ministers, amounting to 4 billion dinars, was withheld from the clubs of the region and was not calculated, as was the case with the rest of the Iraqi clubs that play in the Iraqi Premier League.
Farhad continued, “I spoke with officials in the Iraqi state and asked not to mix politics with sports. The Kurdistan clubs will remain supportive of Iraqi football and provide the Iraqi national teams with players.” He stressed that “it is unreasonable for their role to be marginalized and their right to distribute the revenues that are distributed to other clubs to be denied.”
While the head of the Nawroz club, Hersh Hawrami, told Agency, “Our boycott of the union meeting held in Baghdad is because we are not considered among the Iraqi clubs and our role is marginalized despite our efforts to make the Iraqi league a success.”
He added, “The main reason for boycotting today’s meeting is the failure to disburse the amount allocated by the Prime Minister, amounting to four billion dinars, to the Kurdistan clubs, which were deprived of the amount, even though they are part of the Football Association system.”
Football Association President Adnan Darjal said in today’s meeting: “I regret the absence of our brothers in the region’s clubs. We were supposed to attend the General Assembly meeting and present their suffering, proposals and ideas that contribute to developing football and our participation in the meeting with all the members of the General Assembly who attended, but unfortunately we did not see the presence of the region’s clubs and we were happy with their opinions.”
He explained, “I agreed with the brothers, the regional clubs, and I contacted them and they confirmed their attendance at the meeting, but I was surprised by messages from them confirming their non-attendance. I was surprised by this decision after I had previously agreed with them.”
He stressed that the decision to grant the funds to the clubs is not a decision of the federation but a government decision, indicating that he called the Prime Minister yesterday and spoke with him about supporting the clubs of the region and about how to resolve the problem through legal means, and things will move in a positive direction.