A source close to the Iraqi Olympic Team confirmed on Tuesday, July 16 that coach Hadi Mtanash prefers not to play 2 friendly games with its Bahraini counterpart, ascribing that to a certain the coach’s fear from upcoming games, especially nominating the U-20 team to take part in those games. The source revealed that the team isn’t ready and they weren’t trained adequately.

“The Olympic team coach Hady Mtanash prefers not to leave to Bahrain with the team to play the friendly matches against his Bahraini counterpart on the 18th and 20th of July”, said the source to Alsumaria; ascribing this to “many reasons including certain fears that the coach is experiencing after hearing news that the team will be dismissed from taking part in upcoming matches and will be replaced by the U-20 team with their coach Hakim Shaker”.

“The reasons behind this decision includes allowing players from clubs to join the national team’s convoy while the formation is limited to 16 players”, mentioned the source, emphasizing that “the team didn’t train adequately up till now due to the absence of a number of players and games between players weren’t conducted for a lack in their numbers”.

The Olympic Team is decided to take part in the Islamic Solidarity Games held in Indonesia and the Olympic final games.