The 2019 West Asian Football Federation Championship, also called Asiacell WAFF Championship Iraq 2019 due to sponsorship by Asiacell,[1] was the 9th edition of the WAFF Championship, an international tournament for member nations of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). It was hosted in Iraq for the first time, in the cities of Karbala and Erbil.
The tournament was meant to be held from 8 to 17 December 2017 in Amman, Jordan,[2] but was postponed to a later date,[3] and subsequently moved to Iraq on 21 May 2018.[4] It was then expected to be held in November 2018, but yet again postponed to July–August 2019.[5]
All WAFF members, excluding title holders Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, participated in the competition. Of the nine teams, seven had also appeared in the previous tournament in 2014. 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 in Karbala, between hosts Iraq and Bahrain. Bahrain won the match 1–0 to claim their first WAFF Championship title, marking the second consecutive title won by a Gulf team.
Teams
Participants
A total of nine teams participated in the competition.[6][7] All WAFF members, other than Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, agreed to take part in the tournament.
The teams were distributed on 26 June 2019 in Erbil according to their requests.[8][9][10] 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,[11] 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 Karbala.[10] The two group winners directly advanced to the final.[12]
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
