MOSUL: It was a grim time for football: jihadists observed matches, jerseys from foreign teams were banned and even whistling was prohibited when the Daesh held Iraq’s Mosul.
Now, eastern Mosul has been recaptured and efforts are underway to rehabilitate football pitches, even as the battle for the city’s west continues on the other side of the Tigris River.
“When we were playing, they were watching us and some of them carried weapons, and they prevented us from wearing foreign teams’ uniforms,” says Osama Ali Hamid, a 26-year-old player wearing the jersey of Germany’s Borussia Dortmund club.
“If one of us arrived wearing a shirt with the logo of a foreign team, they’d remove the team’s logo with scissors,” Hamid said.
Excitement dominated a recent match in eastern Mosul, at which young men gathered around a pitch that has been covered in new artificial turf to cheer on their comrades.
“Now we are playing without Daesh monitoring,” says Laith Ali, 23.
“They imposed rules on us.”
But now, the young men can keep playing even when the call to prayer sounds from the minarets of the city’s mosques.
Football is wildly popular in Mosul, as it is in other areas across Iraq — indeed, the sport has been one of the few consistent unifiers in a long-divided country.
The Mosul Club was one of the best-known football clubs in the country, and was preparing to return to the Iraqi league in 2014, when Daesh seized the northern city, preventing the players from going to qualifying matches outside.
The club’s buildings and facilities are located on the eastern side of Mosul, but the main stadium is in west Mosul, which Iraqi forces are still battling to retake from Daesh.
In 2012, work began to build a new stadium on the same spot with a planned capacity of more than 20,000, but like the Mosul club’s Iraqi league aspirations, these plans were also thwarted by the Daesh assault in 2014.
Mohammed Abdulkarim Al-Mimaari, the head of the Youth and Sports Department in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, says that 12 football pitches in the city have been restored.
In Mosul, the department is holding a sports event on the first day of each month, dubbing it “Sports Day,” spokesman Omar Shamseddin said.
Daesh members “were playing with us in the beginning, they were treating us well. They are Iraqis from the local community,” says player Hamid.
But that did not last: they later “began saying in their sermons in the mosques that the battlefields are better than the playing fields.”
“They even prohibited whistling” during matches based on the belief that it would cause “devils” to gather, says 25-year-old player Mustafah Nour.
Violating the prohibition resulted in two or three days in jail, he says.
“But now, we play freely,” Hamid says.
Daesh ouster clears way for football comeback in Iraq’s Mosul
Daesh ouster clears way for football comeback in Iraq’s Mosul
Canada’s Lee sets pace, Kim in the hunt for LIV Golf wild card spots
- LIV Golf Promotions in Florida offers top 3 finishers a chance to play in 2026 regular season
LECANTO: Canada’s Richard T. Lee has proved the player to watch during the first three days at LIV Golf Promotions and is now well-placed for a wild-card spot in the 2026 LIV Golf season.
Anthony Kim, meanwhile, found another gear on the back nine on Saturday, putting him in a better position to return to full-time status in the league.
The final 18 holes of the 36-hole shootout at Black Diamond Ranch take place on Sunday with a potentially career-changing reward for the top three finishers — guaranteed LIV Golf wild-card status for 2026. In addition, the top 10 and ties earn exemptions into the Asian Tour’s International Series.
For the second time this week, Lee led the field with a bogey-free 6-under 64. The 35-year-old will take a two-shot lead over his closest pursuers going into Sunday, giving him a significant advantage. However, he does not plan to take his foot off the gas.
“Honestly, I don’t think it would be comfortable for any player to have a two-shot lead on the last day,” said Lee, who has two eagles, 13 birdies and just one bogey in his 54 competitive holes this week. “I’ll just put my hat on and just play my golf.”
Kim is among three players who are tied for second after shooting a bogey-free 4-under 66, along with South Africa’s Oliver Bekker and Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond. Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard is solo fifth after his 3-under 67, with five other players lurking at 1 under.
Kim, who played as a wild card in the past two seasons following his return to competitive golf after a 12-year retirement, was just 1 under through 12 holes on Saturday. But he made consecutive lengthy birdie putts at the 13th and 14th holes, birdied the par-5 16th, then saved par with a 15-footer at the par-4 18th that circled the cup before dropping.
“I have an opportunity to get one of those spots,” said the 40-year-old, the only American to advance to the weekend. “That’s what I asked for coming into this week and put myself in a good position. Now I’ve just got to go finish.”
Kim would not be in this position had he not made an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th on Friday to make the cut on the number.
“I knew that if I didn’t make birdie on 18 [Friday] that my chances of playing on LIV next year were gone, and to me that’s a big deal,” Kim said. “I’d like to play at the highest level against the best players. It meant a lot to me.”
Bekker was part of LIV Golf’s inaugural field at the 2022 London tournament. Four seasons later, he’s excited about the opportunity to return to the league as a full-time member.
“Thinking back on it now, I had the opportunity to play a few more events, and now I’m like, well, maybe I should have played them,” he said. “The water was a bit rough at that stage and didn’t know what was going to happen, so I played it a bit safe. Luckily, I’ve been given another opportunity this week, and hopefully I can take it.”
Janewattananond won four tournaments in 2019 when he became a top 50 world player and, aged 30, still has years left in his competitive career. After shooting a second-round 67 to advance to the weekend, he shot a 66 on Saturday that included four birdies in a six-hole stretch to end his front nine.
“It’s a very big prize at the end of the day,” he said. “Those three spots up for grabs, it would give me freedom to play wherever I want and security for my family.”
The 34-year-old Bjerregaard, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, said earning full-time LIV Golf status would be career-changing.
“Where I am in my career right now, it’s probably that or retirement,” he said. “Yeah, that would mean a lot for sure.”
Although nothing is guaranteed, Lee has played so well this week that there may be just two spots available for the remainder of the field.
“We’re not playing for one spot,” said Janewattananond. “I don’t have to worry about him. I just have to worry about myself.”
“He played great today,” added Bjerregaard, playing in the same group as Lee on Saturday. “But I would be happy with any of the other two spots, so that’s fine. I can finish third. I wouldn’t mind.”
