Iraq withdraw from Asian Games’ football tournament

HONG KONG: Iraq have withdrawn from the football tournament of this month’s Asian Games in Jakarta, potentially throwing the competition into turmoil less than two weeks before kickoff.

The Iraq Olympic Committee have pulled the team from the event, according to a source in Baghdad, and the decision will leave officials needing to address an imbalance in the opening phase of the tournament.

Last week the Asian Football Confederation conducted a redraw of the competition´s group stage to add Palestine and the United Arab Emirates after the pair had been left off the original entry list.

That meant two of the six groups swelled from four teams to five, but Iraq’s withdrawal now means one group — containing China, Timor Leste and Syria — will feature just three countries.

The Olympic Council of Asia, the organisers of the Asian Games, have yet to respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

A source at the Iraq Football Association had initially denied reports the team would be removed from the competition and that the squad’s preparations were being finalised following the completion of a training camp in the northern city of Erbil.

Earlier this week, football officials were reported to have been fired over their involvement in the selection of overage players for the nation’s under-16 team after they were stopped at passport control on their way to participate in a regional tournament.

The withdrawal of Iraq’s footballers follows a decision by the Philippines not to send the nation’s basketball team to Jakarta in the aftermath of their on-court brawl with Australia during a recent World Cup qualifier.

The football tournament at the Asian Games begins on August 10 and features teams made up of players 23 years of age and under.

Coaches are permitted to select three overage players. The final will be played on September 1.

Meanwhile, Son Heung-min will miss South Korea’s first two matches at the Asian Cup in January under a compromise agreed with Tottenham Hotspur to release him for this month’s Asian Games, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said Wednesday.

The South Korean striker will fly to Indonesia for the Asian Games — where a gold medal is likely to win him exemption from military service — after Spurs´ Premier League season opener against Newcastle United on August 11, a KFA spokesman said.

Spurs had initially sought to keep Son back until August 18, when they have a Premier League match against Fulham.

That would have effectively kept the 26-year-old out of the group stage for Asia´s mini-Olympics, where the football tournament runs from August 14 to September 2.

But Spurs later relented, striking a deal that rules Son out of South Korea’s Asian Cup games on January 7 and 11 against the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan, as well as an international friendly in November.

There are precedents for footballers being granted exemptions from South Korea’s 21-month military service, as happened in 2002, when the national team reached the World Cup semi-finals, and in 2014, when they won gold at the Asian Games in Incheon.

However, Son missed South Korea´s triumph in 2014 when his former club, Bayer Leverkusen, refused to release him.

Son, who is on Spurs’ pre-season tour of the United States, said he felt “sorry to be leaving my team-mates” for the Asian Games at the start of the Premier League season.

“I am playing for my country and that’s also important, but honestly I feel very sorry about that,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

Asian Games gold and a military service exemption would be a consolation for Son, who broke down in tears when South Korea were eliminated at the World Cup group stage despite stunning Germany 2-0 in their final game.

Son, who last month signed a new deal keeping him at Spurs until 2023, has emerged as one of the club’s key players, scoring 47 goals in 140 appearances to become the top Asian scorer in Premier League history.