Posted on 07/28/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
The head of Iraq’s delegation said on Saturday that Olympic chiefs had rejected their request not to display Israel’s flag next to Iraq’s during the Paris Games, AFP reported.
Iraq’s men’s soccer team beat Ukraine 2-1 on Wednesday in Lyon, before losing 3-1 to Argentina on Saturday.
“When we arrived at Lyon Stadium (Wednesday), we found the Iraqi flag displayed next to the Israeli flag,” despite Israel’s team not having any matches in Lyon, Herda Raouf told AFP.
Raouf, whose country does not recognize Israel, added that his delegation had asked a representative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “to relocate or remove the Israeli flag,” but their wish was denied.
The committee’s representative argued, according to Raouf, that the “flags of all participating countries in the men’s and women’s soccer games needed to be displayed in alphabetical order.”
Raouf added that his delegation sent a formal protest by email to the IOC with the same demand before the game with Argentina, but the request was once again rejected.
Israel’s soccer team played Mali to a 1-1 tie in Paris on Wednesday, before losing 4-2 to Paraguay on Saturday.
Iraq’s request to have the Israeli flag removed followed the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Olympic Committee’s request that the IOC bar Israel from taking part at the Paris Games due to the war in Gaza, which the IOC refused.
The head of the PA Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub, later criticized what he described as "double standards" from the IOC.
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) soccer association announced in April that it would call for action against Israel at the annual FIFA congress.
However, FIFA recently postponed the decision on the PA request to suspend Israel from international soccer, clearing the way for the Israeli men’s national team to play at the Paris Olympics.