Baghdad FC: Iraq's Football Story [Hardcover]

‘Compelling and harrowing . . . interesting characters . . . Freeman has a good story to tell . . . he writes well about the nightmarish chaos into which Iraq has descended’ (Sunday Telegraph 20060521)

'Baghdad FC reveals a huge amount about Iraq . . . comprehensive and informative' (Metro [London] 20060601)

'Simon Freeman, after 200-odd pages of intelligent and thorough research, can only conclude that in football, like everything else in Iraq, the situation is "mad and sad".' (The Times 20051104)

‘One of modern football’s most compelling tales . . . a thought-provoking read . . . What Freeman documents with great deftness and empathy is the malevolent manner in which the state infiltrated every area of Iraqi life’ (Scotland On Sunday 20050821)

'Brilliantly told, tempering the deluge of horror stories with an easy, personable style . . . a piece of social commentary . . . it's a welcome one' (Arena 20050819)

‘[A] perceptive glimpse of a rotten tyranny going belly up . . . [Freeman is ] an honest witness to a brutalised country’s hatred for its bungling liberators’ (Literary Review 20050901)

'Excellent'

(Sunday Times Travel Magazine )

‘Iraq’s football story is fascinating’ (Independent )

‘Highly readable . . . a detailed study of what must rank as one of the darkest episodes in football’s history . . . draws on a fascinating array of characters’

(Mail on Sunday )

‘This perceptive book makes clear that sport in Iraq was and still is a microcosm of the country itself’

(Sunday Times / Culture )

‘The fascinating and shocking story of football in Irag, pre- and post-invasion’

(Andrew Baker, Daily Telegraph )

‘Freeman’s account of the chaos following the ‘liberation’ makes for grim reading’

(Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday )

‘Few [tracts] will be as stark or as accessible as this.’

(Scott Wilson, Southern Daily Echo )

'There are sports stories, and then there are real sports stories. The torture of athletes at the hands of government is about as real as it gets. Simon Freeman ably chronicles one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of sports. It is a fascinating, complex story that demands to be told, and to be read. In many ways, it is the story of Iraq itself'

(Tom Farrey, ESPN )

'Highly readable . . . the book draws on a fascinating array of characters to explain what it was like to be a sportsman in Saddam’s Iraq'

 

(Ireland on Sunday )

‘The story is a good one . . . Freeman does some good delving to reveal these horrors and he provides intriguing portraits’

 

(Times Literary Supplement )

‘Tells of brutality, brief triumph, cowardice, paranoia, boastful self-justification and a thwarted quest for truth . . . troubling’

(Traveller )

‘Reveals a huge amount about Iraq, from its tribal and religious factions to the current state of football (non-existent)'

'Simon Freeman's account of football before, during and after the fall of Saddam Hussein ....is hugely readable.'

‘Intelligent and thorough ... in football, like everything else in Iraq, the situation is "mad and sad".’

'Simon Freeman, after 200-odd pages of intelligent and thorough research, can only conclude that in football, like everything else in Iraq, the situation is "mad and sad".'

'Compelling and harrowing . . . he writes well about the nightmarish chaos into which Iraq has descended'

'Baghdad FC reveals a huge amount about Iraq . . . comprehensive and informative'

‘What Freeman documents with great deftness and empathy is the malevolent manner in which the state – in the sinister, chaotic form of Uday – infiltrated every area of Iraqi life, and how he was stymied by the resilience, courage and sheer bloody mindedness of ordinary Iraqis’

'Brilliantly told . . . an easy, personable style . . . a piece of social commentary . . . it's a welcome one'

‘[Simon Freeman is] an honest witness to a brutalised country’s hatred for its bungling liberators’

With the fall of Iraq in 2003, the despotic reign of Uday Hussein, Saddam's son and sports minister, came to an end. For 19 years he had arrested, tortured and murdered footballers, athletes, officials and journalists, thrashing players with cables and forcing them to kick concrete balls until they doubled up in pain. The world of international sport made only occasional, feeble attempts to investigate the allegations of brutality. Yet against these odds, the Iraqi national team has long ranked in the world's top 40.Key to Iraq's footballing success is the story of Ammo Baba, the Arab world's Pele or Stanley Matthews, whose playing and coaching career spans 50 years. As Uday was jailing players and fixing matches, Ammo was seen by some as a national hero for his defiance; for others, he was too loyal to the regime.Ammo will be one of the many characters that Simon Freeman befriends and follows as he uncovers a half-century of triumph and tragedy, together with officials, players and sports journalists involved with the game they loved under the yoke of totalitarianism. He also assesses the team at the 2004 Olympics and in the run-up to the Asian and World Cups. What is the destiny of Iraq's game in a post-Saddam world, where the US military park its tanks on the national stadium? (20050730)

Simon Freeman, a lifelong football fan and former Sunday Times Insight Team journalist, has also written for the Evening Standard, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Vanity Fair, International Herald Tribune and The Times. He has covered two World Cups and one Olympics and has lectured on journalism in London, the US and the Balkans, and consulted for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting. (20050731)