
The Iraqi football team coach, Jesus Casas (51 years old), decided, on Thursday evening, to make an amendment to the final list of players concerned with confronting Kuwait and Palestine, as part of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, in America, Canada and Mexico.
According to the statement of the Iraqi Football Association, Casas, the player of Dohuk Club, included Peter Korkis (24 years), to the final list, before going tomorrow evening, Saturday, to Basra, to start the preparations for the two expected confrontations, as “Al -Rafidain Lions” meet Kuwait, March 20, in Basra, then the Palestinian team in the Jordanian capital, Amman, five days later. On the other hand, a source in the Iraqi federation revealed, in statements to “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”, that Casas decided to exclude the Saudi Riyadh club player, Ibrahim Bish (24 years), about the national team, after the player refused to join the national team, at the start of the camp on Saturday, and that his joining on Monday, which was rejected by the Spanish coach, to decide to remove him from the confrontations of Kuwait and Palestine. There are reasons that prompted Casas to make this change at the level of the team’s list, especially at the level of the exclusion of Bayish, which the coach considers an indispensable essential element, and he was not absent from most of the previous meetings, and he was present in collecting Casas lists.
It appears that Casas’s decision to exclude Paysh came with the aim of strengthening discipline inside the Iraqi national team camp, especially in light of the preparation for the next two decisive confrontations. As for the invitation of Peter Korkis, it came because of the coach’s desire to include a creative player in the play industry, which is currently occupied by only the Dutch player, Zidane Iqbal. But the most prominent reason for the invitation of Korkis was the exceptional performance, which he presented in the second leg of the Gulf Champions League semi -finals against the Saudi agreement, as he led his team Dohuk to the final goal, which he scored in the match.