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| Basra will play host to all the matches at the 2018 WAFF Championship |
Earlier this week the West Asian Football Federation announced that its much delayed biennial tournament will go ahead this year with Basra playing host.
Iraq has staged several friendly matches over the past year to much fanfare and the awarding of the 2018 WAFF Championship is just reward.
The participating nations have not been confirmed but Palestine, who have participated in every single edition are expected to participate.
Since the turn of the century, the WAFF Championship has been a constant presence taking place every two years without fail. That is, until 2016 when the scheduled tournament, due to be held in Bahrain, never happened.
In that time, Iran broke off from the federation and became a founding member of the Central Asian Football Federation joining forces with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Earlier this month, amidst murmurs of a power struggle, the Saudi Football Federation formed the Southwest Asian Football Federation. Incorporating all the nations in West Asia, with the exception of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Qatar.
It is assumed that this was Turki Al-Sheikh’s reaction (the head of the Saudi General Sports Authority) to the refusal of WAFF to move its headquarters from Amman, Jordan to the kingdom.
