The Iraqi Football Association expressed its surprise at the decision taken by the West Asian Football Federation to consider the Iraqi youth team as having lost its two matches against Lebanon and Jordan with scores of (3-0), despite reaching the semi-finals as the champion of its first group with four points. The Association said in a statement that while it condemns this unfair decision against the youth team, it confirms that it reserves its legal right to defend itself before the Asian and International Federations, in addition to possessing evidence that refutes the unjust decision of the West Asian Federation, and it will publish the official papers that confirm the soundness of its position. The Iraqi Football Association confirmed that the delegation of the Iraqi youth team requested in the technical meeting of the West Asian Cup Championship currently underway to examine all the ages of the players in the three teams (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq), and to ensure the integrity of all their identification papers, but it found nothing but a premeditated arbitrary decision that did not give the association the right to respond guaranteed according to the regulations within a period of (24) hours, and issued the decision before the end of that period. It continued that according to what was decided by the West Asian Football Federation, the Iraqi Football Association decided to suspend all its activities and participation in all West Asian Federation championships as a result of the policy of this federation, which has strayed far from the professionalism and principles of sports work that we had hoped the West Asian Federation would adopt. Source: National Iraqi News Agency