FIFA suspends Iraqi soccer association

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MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - The international soccer governing body, FIFA, has ruled to suspend the Iraqi Football Association starting May 26 after Baghdad dissolved the country's sporting bodies, the official FIFA website said Monday.

The decision, made at an annual FIFA session in Sydney, as a retaliatory step to the Iraqi government's May 20 decree, which dissolved the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and all sports federations in the country.

The decision to ban the Iraqi soccer association means that the national team of the war-torn country, which is currently the ruling Asian Champions, will be unable to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

However, the FIFA website said that "the suspension decided upon today may be lifted if FIFA receives by 29 May, midnight (Sydney time), written confirmation from the Iraqi government that the decree has been annulled."

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