The 2019 West Asian Football Federation Championship, also called Asiacell WAFF Championship Iraq 2019 due to

sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is k ...

Asiacell Asiacell Telecom Company ( ar, آسياسيل, ku, ئاسیاسێڵ) is an Iraqi telecommunications company that offers mobile phone services and Mobile Internet mainly in Iraq. History Asiacell, the first mobile telecommunications company ...

, was the 9th edition of the

WAFF Championship The West Asian Football Federation Championship (), or simply WAFF Championship, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF), the g ...

, an international tournament for member nations of the

West Asian Football Federation The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF; ar, اتحاد غرب آسيا لكرة القدم, Ittiḥād Gharb Āsiyā li-Kurat al-Qadam), founded in 2001, is an association of the football playing nations in Western Asia. Its founding members a ...

(WAFF). It was hosted in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

for the first time, in the cities of

Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...

and

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. Hu ...

. The tournament was meant to be held from 8 to 17 December 2017 in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, but was postponed to a later date, and subsequently moved to Iraq on 21 May 2018. It was then expected to be held in November 2018, but yet again postponed to July–August 2019. All WAFF members, excluding title holders

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, participated in the competition. Of the nine teams, seven had also appeared in the previous tournament in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. A total of 17 matches were played in two venues across two cities. The final took place on 14 August at the

Karbala Sports City Karbala International Stadium ( ar, ملعب كربلاء الدولي) is the largest sports stadium in the city of Karbala and the middle-Euphrates area. It can accommodate more than 30 thousand spectators and was opened on 12 May 2016. Descr ...

in Karbala, between hosts

and

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Bahrain won the match 1–0 to claim their first WAFF Championship title, marking the second consecutive title won by a

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

team.

Teams

Participants

A total of nine teams participated in the competition. All WAFF members, other than

and the

, agreed to take part in the tournament.

Draw

The teams were distributed on 26 June 2019 in

according to their requests. The nine teams were drawn into two groups: Group A with 5 teams and Group B with 4. While the draw was intended to be held between 18 and 20 July 2019, some teams requested the organizing committee to play in Erbil, therefore placing them in Group B, with the rest of the teams being placed in Group A to play in

. The two group winners directly advanced to the final. The draw for the group fixtures was held on 20 July 2019 at the

Iraq Football Association The Iraq Football Association (IFA) ( ar, الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraqi national team and the Iraqi Premier League. The Iraqi Football Association was founded ...

headquarters in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Squads

Each team had to register a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers.

Officiating

Referees * Wathik Al-Baag (

) * Mohammed Al-Noori (

) * Mohammad Arafah (

) * Turki Al-Khudhayr ( Saudi Arabia) * Ali Al-Samaheeji (

) * Saad Khalefah (

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

) * Wissam Rabie (

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

) * Mohamad Issa (

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

) * Sameh Al-Qassas (

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

) * Mahmood Al-Majarafi (

) * Haitham Al-Walidi (

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

) Assistant Referees * Muayad Mohamed Ali (

) * Jihad Dawood (

) * Mahmoud Abu-Thaher (

) * Khalaf Al-Shammari ( Saudi Arabia) * Salah Janahi (

) * Humoud Al-Sahli (

) * Abdullah Kanaan (

) * Ali Mokdad (

) * Amin Shaban Halabi (

) * Hamed Al-Ghafri (

) * Ali Al-Hasani (

)

Venues

Group stage

The WAFF announced the tournament schedule on 20 July 2019. The group winners advance to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. ''All times are local, AST (

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

).''

Group A

---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Final ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Prize money

Prize money amounts were announced in 2019.

Broadcasting rights

The WAFF sold the

broadcasting rights Broadcasting rights (often also called media rights) are commercial law, rights which a broadcasting organization negotiates with a commercial concern - such as a sports governing body or film distributor - in order to show that company's products ...

for the 2019 WAFF Championship to the following broadcasters.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:WAFF

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2019 in Asian football International association football competitions hosted by Iraq Sport in Karbala Sport in Erbil 2019 in Iraqi sport July 2019 sports events in Iraq August 2019 sports events in Iraq