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FIFA lifts three-decade ban to allow Iraq host international matches

FIFA has lifted its three-decade ban on Iraq hosting international football with the cities of Arbil, Basra and Karbala given the go-ahead to stage matches.

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino looks on before a press conference on March 16, 2018 in Bogota, Colombia, after FIFA Council meeting.FIFA on Friday approved the video arbitration (VAR) for the World Cup of Russia-2018, a controversial system with which seeks the reduction of errors in football, informed Infantino.
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FIFA has lifted its three-decade ban on Iraq hosting international football with the cities of Arbil, Basra and Karbala given the go-ahead to stage matches.

"We are allowing international matches to be staged in the cities of Arbil, Basra and Karbala," FIFA president Gianni Infantino told reporters after a meeting of the FIFA Council in Bogota on Friday. 

"FIFA has given the green light for the resumption but the organisers of the championship must take the final decision," added Infantino.

Infantino also said that the situation in Iraq's capital Baghdad is still under review and FIFA is 'yet' to agree on request to organise matches there.

The three cities were allowed to organise friendly matches last year provided the security at the venue was 'stable.'

According to a report by WION, FIFA's decision came after constant persuasion by Iraq. In an effort to have the ban lifted, Iraq has been building stadiums and asking stars and governing bodies to help them.

After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, FIFA had banned the country from international turfs. It was briefly lifted in 2012, but a power outage during an Iraq-Jordan match in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil led FIFA to promptly reinstate it.

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