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(#3) Jailed Players Were Forced To Kick Around A Concrete Ball
In addition to beatings and imprisonment, there were punishments like kicking around a concrete soccer ball in stifling heat. Players were also forced to endure "12-hour sessions of push-ups, sprints, and other fitness drills, wearing heavy military fatigues and boots." If a player missed several shots in practice, he would be forced to stand in front of Uday with his hands bound at his sides while the President's son slapped and punched him repeatedly.
In order to avoid making a mistake, players often refused to kick the ball at all, especially for penalty shots. Players realized that only those individuals who touch the ball would be punished, so they simply stopped kicking it. Abbas Rahim Zair was one of only three players on the team that would attempt to make penalty shots. On one occasion when he missed, it landed him in jail for three weeks.
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(#8) Getting A Red Card In A Match Resulted In Humiliation And Torture
When team captain Yasser Abdul Latif got a red card during a 2000 game in Baghdad, he was taken to Radwaniya prison on the outskirts of town, where he remained for two weeks. In the prison, his "head and eyebrows were shaved, and he was stripped to the waist." Forcible head-shaving is a humiliating punishment, particularly for Muslim men. Muslims should only shave their heads as an act of worship and only in certain contexts, according to Islamic doctrine.
He was flogged with electric cable in two-hour increments with an hour-long break in between; the beatings grew more savage as time went on. He was led outdoors into the winter cold and doused in freezing water, which provided some relief.
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(#11) Iraqi Players Kept Going Back For Family And For Country
Most players on the Iraqi team felt as though they had no choice but to endure the treatment they faced from Uday. Some players had no other job or career options while some had family in Iraq they couldn't leave. Even the players that could leave Iraq—and there weren't many—returned to play for the Iraqi team despite Uday's brutal treatment.
There are players who challenge the reports of torture and death threats, claiming that the harsh treatment was just part of life in Iraq and that the abuse has been overstated. Uday was also said to have rewarded his players for victories with cars and houses, which may have been an incentive to return as well.
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(#12) Uday Hussein Saw Athletic Failure As A Disgrace To Himself And To Iraq
Uday Hussein took winning very seriously. He saw the performance of Iraqi athletes as a reflection of the country and, as the head of the Olympic committee and national soccer federation, of himself. Uday took on those roles in 1984 thanks to his father, Saddam Hussein, when he was just 20 years old. Uday—arguably the most violent member of the family—used to storm around after a loss of any kind saying, "This is my Iraq. Embarrassing Iraq embarrasses me."
After international sanctions were imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, the country's overall decline affected its soccer team. Uday was unhappy with this, naturally, and found that fear was the only way he knew to motivate his players. With his ego so closely woven into the athletes' performances, he had a lot at stake, but he missed the mark. As one former Iraqi volleyball player, Issam Thamer al-Diwan, put it, "Iraqi sports are worse today than ever. Our teams used to win. There was much pride in playing for your country. But Uday never understood pride, only fear. He was never an athlete. He thought he could use his father's sadistic approach to improve performance. He has failed."
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(#7) Players Beaten For Only Three Days Felt Lucky They Didn't Have To Endure More
When Iraq lost to Beirut in the 2000 Asian Cup, Uday Hussein identified three players that he blamed for the defeat. He ordered goalkeeper Hashim Hassan, defender Abdul Jaber, and striker Qahtan Chither to be taken to the Iraqi Olympic Committee headquarters. They were thrown into prison and beaten for three days.
This punishment was comparatively mild, however; some athletes possibly lost their lives. One boxer returned home to Iraq after a defeat. According to an observer, Uday yelled at the man, "In sport you can win or you can lose. I told you not to come home if you didn't win" before punching him repeatedly in the face. Uday then used an electric prod to jolt the boxer and "ordered his guards to fetch a straight razor... The boxer cried out as Uday held the razor to his throat, and as he moved the blade to the fighter's forehead." Uday then shaved the man's eyebrows and ordered that he be taken to the prison in the building. No one ever saw the boxer again.
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(#6) Missing Practice For Any Reason Landed Players In Prison
There was no acceptable reason to miss soccer practice, not even for a funeral or a sick child, and players often found themselves in prison if it happened. Once they were in prison, they were sometimes urinated on by Uday himself, whipped with an electric cord, or subjected to electric shocks.
To make matters worse, there was no medical treatment available to players. Whether they were hurt on the field or off, doctors were off limits, and players could face additional punishment if they sought help.
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About This Tool
After the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown, members of the Iraqi national football team exposed the true situation of Saddam's brutal persecution. Every football player knows the pain and regret of missed penalty kicks, but for the Iraqi national team players, missed penalty kicks mean more serious consequences: endure public humiliation and long prison life and torture.
Among the instruments of torture designed by Uday Hussein, the most shocking is the "human-shaped iron coffin", those sharp nails just pierced into the athlete's skin. The random tool shares 12 stories of soccer players in Saddam Hussein's Iraq who were tortured due to fails in games.
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