Iraq Looks to Fill Any Void Left by English Hooligans

Now that it appears English hooligans will not be a concern for organizers of soccer’s 1994 World Cup in the United States, their attention shifts to another continent.

The outcome of Asian qualifying, which culminates with a six-team, round-robin tournament starting today in Qatar, could cause more headaches than the hooligans, Alan Rothenberg, chairman of World Cup USA ‘94, said.

Three teams vying for the two Asian berths, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, have less-than-friendly relations with the U.S. government, which could prevent members of their delegations from entering the United States for the June 17-July 17 World Cup if they are considered security threats.

Other teams in the two-week Asian tournament are South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Before they were awarded the World Cup in a 1988 vote, bid committee officials gave the international soccer federation assurances from President Ronald Reagan that the U.S. government would cooperate “in the areas of visas, work permits and customs.”

But officials of the World University Games last summer in Buffalo said they had the same guarantees from the State Department, which, nevertheless, denied Libyan athletes visas because of that country’s links to terrorism.

Meantime, Iraq appears to be approaching the qualifying in Qatar as the mother of all soccer tournaments.

“If we qualify, we know it will be the biggest slap the monster America will get,” Coach Adnan Dirjai told the Associated Press. “And then we will show the Americans that playing soccer is different from bombing Baghdad from the air.”

A sports newspaper in Baghdad, Al-Baath Arriyadhi, challenged the team to “fight to the death and come back to Iraq with a visa of Uncle Sam’s country.”