Iraq

Iraqi football is a story of glory wrested from chaos. The federation was born in 1948, the national league in 1974, and the Lions of Mesopotamia built a respectable record: a 1986 World Cup appearance, an astonishing fourth place at the 2004 Olympics and, above all, the 2007 Asian Cup, won in the middle of a civil war by a team of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds that united the country like nothing before. The league is dominated by the Baghdad trio of Al-Zawraa, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and Al-Shorta, with Al-Quwa winning three consecutive AFC Cups, and has been played for decades through sanctions, invasions and closed stadiums, never ceasing to produce talent and passion.