Despite no official announcement, sources all over Europe and Iraq have confirmed that the Iraqi Federation is close to signing a contract with the Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz to lead Iraq’s challenge of qualification for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Katanic was the last coach of Iraq to leave his post after Iraq secured the qualification to the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The reason was simply, monetary. Iraqi football federation has not paid the Slovenian for months which can frustrate even the most loyal and tolerant of coaches.

The fact is Iraq FA is bankrupt and has no steady income. Securing the services of an international coach requires a hefty budget which is not available to the Iraqi FA. So, recruiting a coach with an asking price of the north of two million US$ seems to be unattainable.

If Iraq FA could not regularly pay Katanec, how on earth they can afford an expensive and very demanding coach such as Queiroz?. Let’s face it, he does not come cheap and he is a very heavy burden to the budget of any federation.

Here comes the role of the insecure government of Iraq. To gain some hardly sought popular approval from the masses, the government of Iraq has agreed to pay for Queiroz and burden all his expenses. Such things will never be published, of course, but enough information has been leaked to give this theory some credibility.

Assuming that the Iraqi FA has sorted out the big challenge of Queiroz fees, it has to tackle other serious issues with the Portuguese. Like the 8 years that he spent with Team Melli, he was never a permanent resident of the country. His preference has always been the limelight of the City of Dubai. He traveled to Tehran when required and nothing more than that. He hardly attended league matches to find out about the standards of the local players, the tactics, and the physical strength of players, ironically he saved his travels to Europe to check on the Iranian legionnaires.

What is another big challenge is the demeanor of the Portuguese man. He is a difficult character to deal with. Aggressive, confrontational, and generally outspoken, the Iraqis have a challenge. He is a “never wrong” type of person who easily shifts the blames on others for shortfalls. Quite demanding when it comes to facilities, training equipment, player’s comfort, rest, league scheduling, and the time allocated for training camps. Queiroz will perhaps make one friend versus 10 enemies in any period of time in Iraq.

Despite all that, it is fair to say that Queiroz did a fine job with Iran. Whether the Iraqi’s will accept the heavy baggage that comes along with Carlos Queiroz is another story. If all financial issues are settled, the chances are that Queiroz will find some adversaries in Iraqi politicians. Many will question his pay reported to be more than 2 million dollars per annum while Iraqi people are living in extremely harsh conditions with frequent power cuts in the sweltering heat of summer not to mention the lack of security. That may be the reason that Queiroz does not intend to live in Baghdad