-When I know ISIS has killed 13 Iraqi teens for watching the Iraqi team play on TV, then I know I am supporting the right team.
-When I know that terrorists have killed hundreds of Iraqis who were out to cheer and celebrate the Iraqi team in public squares, I know I am supporting the right team.
-When I know Assyrians have always been a big part of the Iraqi team, going as far back as the 1950s and till this day-even acknowledged by the Iraqi Football Federation-then I know I am supporting the right team. In fact, Assyrians built the very foundation of the Iraqi football.
-When I know that football is the only thing Iraqis have agreed on (almost) then I know I am supporting the right team.
Just because I support a certain team (assuming we don't have our own Assyrian national team) that doesn't make me any more or less Assyrian than someone else. This is sports. This is soccer. Sure, you can choose to make a statement, that is your choice. I myself don't. I have lived in Iraq through high school and while I may not be a big fan of a lot of things going on there, the team (again, A SPORT TEAM) is something that has stuck with me. You just won't understand I guess, unless you have grown watching it. The players that make up (and have made up) the Iraqi team are good people and know they represent every Iraqi, regardless of religion or sect. They are average people like me and you. They are are representing a nation not a terrorist organization. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, an Iraqi player was widely and heavily criticized by his teammates and Iraqi alike because he mixed soccer and politics. In a reply to a question, he said "if I wasn't here, I would be home fighting the Americans in Falluja!" This idiot was put into his place because the last thing the Iraqi team needed was politics and religion to be inserted into its operations. It is like a separation of state and religion.
Ok so you don't support the Iraqi team (a sports team) because the country (government and people) hasn't been nice to you. Correct? Ok, so what do you say to Kurds? they too were gassed and in one day, thousands were killed. What do you say to the Shi'ttes? tens of thousands if not more were killed by Saddam. Actually a lot more but I will just keep it to the tens of thousands. Let us go to the Sunnis: do you know how many of them have died in the last 13 years at the hands of the Shi'tte dominated government? I am guessing hundreds of thousands. So if I am ask the members of the current Iraqi team about what they think of the Semele and Sourya massacres, they will be supportive of what the government did? Or you will try to tell me "it is not about these players, it is about the whole country not being good to us Assyrians?"
Well you get the point...
Or do you?
You wanted to involve politics and blood into a sport? I gave you the answer.
Based on the above, the Iraqi team should be loved by no Iraqi, no just Assyrians, correct? Since, after all, every Iraqi has suffered at one point or another at the hands of the government or the people.
Please make it simple for yourself: I don't think you are from Iraq or were born in Iraq anyway, but you can choose not to like the Iraqi team. And you can even choose to criticize those who do. But just remember, by getting too much caught up in politics when talking sports may not make your argument too valid.
I am not going to base my opinion of the team, and whether I like it or not, on the opinion of some religious savages and terrorist, who ironically enough, don't even recognize something called Iraq. To them all it matters is Islam. Iraq means nothing. The religion comes first. When they kick and kill our people (and their own) they are not doing it in the name of the country. They don't even love Iraq. They are doing it in the name of Islam. Be aware of this distinction. I am more than happy to do something that pisses off the terrorists.
And to make it clear, I may sound like I am so into the Iraqi state and support it wholeheartedly. Read my other posts (there are thousands of them) and I am usually against a lot of things happening in that country. Sometimes too much against. I support the team a lot more than I support the country, though I do wish for the country to remain united, otherwise, if separation is its fate, then I hope we as Assyrians get something of our own, and don't live in a country called Kurdistan.
ASHOOR