Iraq opens World Cup camp under shadow of ticket scandal
Shafaq News- Chicago
Iraq's national football team completed its first training session on United States soil Sunday ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, even as a separate crisis mounted over the fate of more than 3,000 supporter tickets whose whereabouts remain unaccounted for following “an unauthorized handover by former leadership.”
Training in Chicago
The squad trained in full at its Chicago base under head coach Graham Arnold, an Australian who took charge of Iraq in May 2025 and guided the team through a grueling qualification campaign to reach the tournament. Arnold ordered the session closed to media and the public, according to the Iraqi delegation.
One player was absent. Defender Ahmed Yahya, who plays for Baghdad-based club Al-Shorta, departed the camp and returned to Iraq after sustaining a hamstring injury. The Iraqi Football Association (IFA) confirmed Saturday that Yahya had been ruled out of the tournament and would be replaced in the final squad by Ahmed Hassan Makenzie. The delegation's official photographer, Talal Salah, also left the United States en route to Spain, accompanying Yahya on the journey home.
Iraq is scheduled to face Venezuela in a friendly on Wednesday in Chicago —its final preparatory fixture before entering group-stage competition. The tournament marks Iraq's first World Cup appearance since their sole participation 40 years ago, at Mexico 1986.
Venezuela, Iraq's Wednesday opponent, lost 2-1 to Turkiye in a separate friendly earlier Sunday. Turkiye is itself scheduled to face Iraq in Chicago on June 10, according to the Iraqi delegation.
Iraq opens its World Cup campaign against Norway on June 16 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The team is drawn in a group that also includes France and Senegal.
Ticket Controversy
A board member of the Iraqi Football Association disclosed Sunday that 3,150 tickets allocated to Iraqi supporters for the team's three opening group matches —against Norway, France, and Senegal— were handed to a US-based company without the knowledge of the federation's executive office and without a formal legal contract.
Ghalib al-Zamili, the board member, told Shafaq News that the tickets had been transferred by Adnan Dirjal, who served as IFA president until May 23, 2026, according to public records. He described the handover as a "wrongful act" and said the current federation has been unable to determine the whereabouts of the tickets.
Circulating documents reviewed by Shafaq News indicate the tickets, 1,050 per match, were purchased for a combined total of approximately $1.408 million, drawn from a FIFA grant allocated to qualifying nations to cover World Cup participation costs. The tickets were delivered in full to the company in question with no legal agreement in place, according to al-Zamili.
The IFA is currently working through coordinators in the United States to recover the tickets or establish their status, al-Zamili said. Calls from within Iraqi sporting circles for a formal investigation into the matter have grown in recent days, with questions raised about which individuals or entities benefited from the arrangement.
No official statement on ticket replacement or alternative allocation for Iraqi supporters has been issued by the federation at the time of publication.
