2019 WAFF Championship

2019 WAFF Championship
بطولة اتحاد غرب آسيا لكرة القدم 2019
Tournament details
Host countryIraq
Dates30 July – 14 August
Teams9 (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Bahrain (1st title)
Runners-up Iraq
Tournament statistics
Matches played17
Goals scored34 (2 per match)
Attendance148,683 (8,746 per match)
Top scorer(s)Iraq Hussein Ali
(3 goals)
Best player(s)Iraq Hussein Ali
2013
2023

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.

  1. ^ ""آسيا سيل" ترعى بطولة اتحاد غرب آسيا التاسعة للرجال". The WAFF. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  2. ^ "7 منتخبات تؤكد المشاركة في غرب آسيـا ومنتخبنـا يرسل قائمته الأوليـة". shabiba.com (in Arabic). 7 November 2017.
  3. ^ "تأجيل بطولة غرب آسيا لكرة القدم". Alrai. 25 November 2017.
  4. ^ "Iraq to host first international football tournament". AFP.com. 21 May 2018.
  5. ^ إسماعيل, بغداد-علي. "العراق يحدد المدن التي ستستضيف بطولة غرب آسيا 2019". alaraby.