First published on 3rd Jan 2008 on Ministry of Defence website.
Iraqi Soldiers have beaten their British military trainers and mentors from 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in a friendly five-a-side football competition held to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
The British soldiers from 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment are attached to the 1 SCOTS Battle Group and members of 14 Division of the Iraqi Army. They have been training and monitoring their Iraqi counterparts in military fieldcraft, weapon handling and patrolling skills.
But during the football match, held on 31 December 2007 at the Contingency Operating Base in Basra, the Iraqi soldiers taught the Brits a few lessons of their own despite the British lads being determined to make up for their last meeting when they were trounced by 22 goals to 3.
The soldiers from 1 Lancs put together five teams against three from the Iraqi soldiers and after several good natured but hard fought games, the tournament was finally won, after a penalty shoot out, by the Iraqis who promptly celebrated with their flag.
Major Hamish Cormack from 1 Lancs said:
“Today we’re playing football against one of the Iraqi Army units that we’re responsible for mentoring, monitoring and training. We’ve played them in the past when we’ve been out down at their barracks and that was part of the fun side of our job down there. “So we decided that we would invite them back here to celebrate New Year’s Eve and have a rematch, and give ourselves a chance to recover some glory after they stuffed us. I think it was 22 – 3 in the last game.”
The fun of the football match also gave the Iraqi and British commanders the chance in a relaxed environment to reinforce links and discuss future plans:
Major Cormack added:
“Anything that gets us to build a closer relationship with the Iraqis that we work with is a good thing. Football is one of those great levellers and it really managed to break down a lot of the barriers. “For example, today we’ve got the Brigade Commander who’s come down from the City, we’ve got the commanding officer with the battalion here, so it gives us an opportunity in a very relaxed environment to talk about where we’re going next with supporting them and how we can be of more assistance.”
Lieutenant Colonel Saeed from the Iraqi Army said:
“The British forces have trained my Battalion. We have learned so much from the training in military skills. My relationship with the British Officers has been very good, and the instructors have been great with the soldiers.” “Today we came here to play football with the British Army but we also wanted to say Happy New Year.”