Tag: Ahmed Radhi

BAGHDAD: In the sweltering heat of Mexico '86, Ahmed Radhi and Basil Gorgis pulled on the same jerseys to represent Iraq's football team in its sole World Cup Finals. "We have more confidence in them than the politicians, who have changed nothing," Hassan says. The National Alliance is led by Iraq's Vice President Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and parliamentary speaker Salim al-Juburi, a Sunni. "This is what the people want now." Other candidates, sporting or otherwise, have more narrow motivations. Now administrator for the national team, Gorgis is running in the Kurdish city of Arbil and says he seeks to protect the interests of Christians. Sabbar is number 10 on the list of the "Tamaddun" group, which advocates a secular state. Not all the former footballers running in the elections here are political novices. Other contenders include Taleb Faysal, the president of Iraq's weightlifting federation, who is on the list for former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's "Rule of Law Alliance." "We have confidence in none of the candidates, because we know they will only think of themselves once in parliament," says Imane Kazem in the capital.