They left the stadiums for the demonstrations. Iraqi stars support popular protests

Ali Nouri-Baghdad

Demonstrations that hit a number of cities in Iraq imposed a different reality for Iraqi football stars, many of whom left the football fields to go to the fields of sit-ins, some of whom cut off his professional experience, and this applies to the professional with Canadian Canadian Ali Adnan, including those who went on strike With local clubs to take to the streets to support the protesters.

The participation of many stars in the demonstrations had the greatest impact on many young people who considered the alignment of celebrities and sports stars with them in the squares is the biggest moral motivation to increase their determination and persistence to continue legitimate demonstrations.

From Canada to the Liberation Square
The Iraqi national team player and professional with Canadian Canadian club Ali Adnan returned from Canada to participate in the demonstrations. In the distribution of food and drink to the demonstrators by delivering meals in their own cars inside the Tahrir Square.

The presence of Iraqi football stars received great popular interaction in the yards of protest and enthusiastically inflamed the demonstrators, and with every descent of a well-known sports star sees youth gatherings surrounding him, while chanting national chants and going to take commemorative photos with him and singing their achievements to the country in foreign forums.

The support was not only to take to the streets, but there was also effective support through the moral support given to the demonstrators by many Iraqi football stars through their pages on social media.

"To my free Iraqi brothers, the green zone does not mean anything to you," said former Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud. "Your blood and pure souls are more valuable than everything. Your presence in Tahrir Square has become your source of strength."

The former Iraqi football star Saad Qais "All countries in the world have a statue or a monument to freedom, but Iraq now has (a liberation square and a monument to freedom), and history will remember these men and their attitude and their bravery and courage."

The Message of the Maestro
Maestro considered the Iraqi football originated Akram Akram demonstrators massively to the scene of the protests is a natural matter after 16 years of injustice and domination and deprivation.

Nashaat said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that "with the demonstrations and demands to restore the usurped rights we suffered from many floundering in the political process and bad management and many accumulations, which generated terrible wars after 2003."

He sent a message to the demonstrators saying, "My brothers the demonstrators, I invite you to continue your sit-in in Tahrir Square and other cities, and I hope our young people not to go away from Tahrir Square, and the lesson is not the bridge."

Meanwhile, former Iraqi goalkeeper Noor Sabri said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, "We went down to Tahrir Square because we are part of this people. The demonstrators are our brothers, and we cannot see them coming down to demand legitimate rights while we remain onlookers."

He stressed, "We wish to change the ideas towards the Iraqi citizen, we are a people who do not benefit from its goods, the government should meet the demands of the demonstrators and not the practice of killings and repression against them."

The Iraqi player Ali Adnan expressed his great happiness as he returns from Canada to participate in the popular demonstrations, as he appeared with his father and brothers in Tahrir Square and strongly supported the demonstrations.

Ali Adnan said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, "I saw the demonstrations that took place on the first of October last while I was in Canada, I felt that something inside me is pushing me to return to Iraq."

"I asked the Vancouver Club of Canada to give me a leave to return to Iraq, and the administration agreed to this request without giving them reasons."

He concluded that "our participation in the demonstrations is a simple thing to offer to the country and the Iraqi people, we should exist because the athlete is a symbol of the homeland, and our presence gave a great moral impetus to the young demonstrators."