The Iraqi Football Federation intends to sue the world football governing body FIFA for denying it hosting its matches at home citing security reasons.

FIFA’s decision to deprive the country of hosting the World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers. In a letter to the Iraqi Football Federation yesterday, FIFA stated that the country could not host its World Cup qualifiers due to its security situation, and therefore should nominate a third country to host the home matches. FIFA’s decision has been met with objections from the Iraqi Football Federation, to the extent that they intend to sue the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The Iraqi website also wrote that in the second step, the Iraqi Football Federation intends to ask FIFA and the AFC to hold a return match between Iran and Iraq at the Basra Stadium, which is scheduled to take place in Iraq. However, the Iraqi Sports website wrote that the federation has introduced Qatar as its host to FIFA for the first time, but will try to persuade FIFA to reverse this decision.

The chances of Iraq hosting its home games are slim as the CAS hearing normally takes a long time and chances are that the qualifiers will be over by the time a ruling is issued.

Iraq is in Group A of the World Cup Qatar 2022 third-round qualifiers along with Iran, Korea Rep., Syria, Lebanon, and UAE