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Important update on 1476AMEmbracing excitement: Inside Iraq's incredible World Cup qualification
Sam Kosack • April 8th, 2026 5:21 pm
For most countries, taking on France, Denmark, and Senegal in the Group Stage of the FIFA World Cup would be the worst-case scenario.
Not for Iraq and Graham Arnold.
The former Socceroos coach has guided Iraq to their first World Cup in 40 years, overcoming wars, missiles, and insurmountable odds to qualify, making him the first Australian to take two nations to a men’s FIFA World Cup.
Now, with no pressure and no expectations, Arnold is ready to challenge the world’s best players on the world’s biggest stage, owning the definition of underdogs.
“Everyone here would call it the group of death, but I call it the group of excitement because 99 per cent of my players have never been on the same field as these guys,” Arnold told SEN's Kick Off.
“It's an honour to get on the same pitch to play against Mbappe, against France, and against Norway, Senegal…but they are human beings as well.
“That mentality has to be a very strong mentality of going out and saying… ‘It's 11 vs 11… let's go out and shock the world and not play with fear, but play with excitement and anything can happen and that's my whole purpose of this World Cup.
“My full focus is just these boys and going there and doing (them) proud.
“I had a great time obviously in Qatar with the Socceroos where we got to the second round and we finished 11th in the world.
“That was a massive highlight of my life and career, but taking Iraq, where we're totally underdogs, no-one will expect us to win a game.
“Well, the pressure's on the opponents, it's not on us, so let's go and enjoy it.”
Unconventional is a simplistic way of describing Iraq’s journey to the World Cup.
With the current conflicts in the Middle East, even making it to their playoff games was an achievement for Arnold’s men.
Iraq’s only previous appearance at a World Cup was in 1986, where they lost all three group matches. But now, upon returning for the first time in 40 years, Arnold was just excited to give something back to the football-mad country, even amid an exceptionally tough qualification process.
“Mate, to be honest, they've had the hardest one in the world,” Arnold said.
“They've had to play 21 World Cup qualifiers. I took over 10 months ago, they were on the verge of missing out completely.
“We won the second game against Jordan, that got us into the third spot position, that got us into the playoffs.
“We then had to play the playoffs, we beat Indonesia, we drew to Saudi Arabia, we got through to the next phase by coming second in the group.
“We then had to play the UAE which was in third place in the other group, and we drew 1-1 in Abu Dhabi and we beat them in the last minute with a penalty, 2-1.
“So, these boys have gone through a lot of heartbreak but we use that, and I use that as motivation and experiences.
“It started from day one in March… you're getting stuck in Dubai and bombs are going off about 750 metres from the hotel I was in.
“And then, obviously, getting players (and) staff out of Iraq because the airspace was shut and players and staff had to travel 20-24 hours on a bus trip with security all around them, and they were stuck in Jordan for about 24 hours because of missiles.
“Then they got out of there with the help of FIFA with a chartered flight, and then a two hour flight to Monterrey, Mexico, and it was a very mentally tough challenge for the boys as well.
“I'll be honest with you, I would never have taken the job if they hadn't qualified for 40 years.
“I love a challenge in life, and what you saw at the airport the other night was just incredible, and that just shows you how fanatic the Iraqi fans are with the football in Iraq and what it means to their country.
“After 40 years, to qualify them and help them do something positive in that part of the world at this moment in time was fantastic.
“At the hotel in Monterrey, after the game, there were about 10,000 Iraqis outside the hotel, just banging drums (and) singing Iraq.
“Back in Baghdad, the players had to do the same route back because the airspace is still shut in Iraq, so they had to go to Jordan, get on a bus. It took them 40 hours to get back because all the roads were blocked.
“All the way back with people just celebrating and about 200,000 (people) were in the streets of Baghdad when the boys got back to celebrate, and it was only with the local players because there is quite a number of foreign players.
“When I say that, they're Iraqis, but because of the war 20 years ago, their parents left and moved to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, or even here to Australia.
“So those players didn't go back as well as my staff because we couldn't go back because of the airspace shut.
“They've had huge celebrations in Iraq. I’ve been sent thousands of videos and… it's made the country very, very happy in these really hard times at this moment.”
