Hussein Ammouta U-turn leaves Iraq still without a coach as big games loom

AMSTERDAM: No coaching carousel spins faster than those in West Asia.

Since World Cup qualification began in October 2023 all 12 Arab nations in the Asian Football Confederation have changed managers.

The latest tactician to be given his marching orders was Jesus Casas who recently left the Iraq post after two years and five months at the helm.

It was widely tipped that the Iraq Football Association would bring in a big name to replace Casas and lead the team to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986.

A leading candidate quickly emerged — Al-Jazira manager Hussein Ammouta who earned plaudits by leading Jordan to the 2023 Asian Cup final.

The Moroccan has strong links to the country’s top brass.

The IFA’s President Adnan Dirjal coached Ammouta at Al-Sadd in the late 1990s. And when Ammouta became manager of the club a decade-and-a-half later he recruited the IFA’s Vice President Younis Mahmoud to lead the line for the Qatari powerhouse.

Everything was set to unveil the 55-year-old this week, according to the Iraqi media and Twitterati. Then it was off, leaving the Lions of Mesopotamia without a manager with less than five weeks before their next World Cup qualifier.

Addressing the media in the aftermath, Mahmoud said there were seven candidates, amongst them three foreigners. He was coy about the details and played up the virtues of having an Iraqi in the role.

“We are still in negotiations and we will announce in the coming days. It could be Ammouta. I don’t know anything about what has been said, I leave these details to (president) Adnan (Dirjal) as he is a former manager and knows more than me.”

It was not supposed to be like this for Iraq. A new board at the IFA led by Dirjal had wanted to put