On February 12, the Japan Football Association (JFA) staged a friendly international match between the national football (soccer) teams of Iraq and Japan. The JFA has been supporting soccer in Iraq since the official cessation of combat. Last November they donated footballs and boots collected from around Japan. The friendly match was another way of giving support and encouragement to the war-torn country. In the 1980s, the Iraqi national team dominated the Middle Eastern region, qualifying for three consecutive Olympic tournaments, winning the soccer tournament of the Asian Games in 1982, and qualifying for its first appearance in the FIFA World Cup Tournament in 1986.
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