That’s more or less the word that was waiting for Adnan Dirjal last week, when the coach of the Iraqi national soccer team left the field after losing to North Korea, 3-2. The defeat came in a regional qualifying tournament for the World Cup championships, which will be held next summer in the United States. If Iraq hopes to make that trip to the Desert Stormfront, it can’t afford to lose another game during the two-week Asian qualifying tournament in Qatar. So the head of the Iraqi Football Association–who happens to be Saddam’s favorite son, Udai–fired Dirjal and dispatched Ahmed Baba to take command of the team.
Much was at stake. The national team had been pampered for months, living in a luxury hotel and not worrying about their next meals. “Eighteen million people, they want results,” Baba told NEWSWEEK’S Christopher Dickey. “They say, ‘You put [these players] in The Babylon, you did this and that for them. We want results!’” And among Baba’s first foes was a bitter enemy: the Iranians. With a close 2-1 victory last Friday, he survived. To paraphrase the axiom, sport is politics by another name.
