Erbil, Karbala to host West Asian Football Federation Championship

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Both the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil and the Iraqi city Karbala are set to host the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Championship with the first match to be held on Tuesday evening.

Nine teams are participating in the championship, divided into two groups.

Group A includes five teams: Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Lebanon. Group B consists of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.

Starting on Tuesday, matches will be held at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. local time.

Teams in Group A will play their matches at Karbala International Stadium, some 106 kilometers south of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, while Group B teams will play at the Franso Hariri Stadium in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

Iraq will play Lebanon at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Yemen against Palestine at 10:30 p.m., both in Karbala.

Erbil will host a match between Jordan and Bahrain at 7:30 p.m. and later Saudi Arabia vs. Kuwait at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 4.

This is the first championship to be held in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region since the Gulf War in 1991.

Read More: FIFA ends three-decade ban on Iraq, Kurdistan hosting international matches

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that the first match held in Erbil was on Aug. 1.