منتخب العراق لكرة القدم

The title of this post means The Iraqi National Football Team. I did try to include it in the text of the post but the cursor went all over the place, presumably because Arabic is written from right to left.

Anyway the team has just won the Asia cup. Against the odds too as Saudi Arabia were tipped to win. Hard not to be pleased for a nation of people who lets be fair have had a pretty miserable time of it in recent years one way or another. First the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, then the war with America, Britain et al.

Hussein's son, Uday was responsible for the national football team for a number of years. Apparently under his leadership "... motivational lectures to the team included threats to cut off players' legs, while missed practices resulted in prison time, and losses resulted in flogging with electric cable or baths in raw sewage." Makes this lot look like pussy cats.