Bush hype casts doubt over fairytale

That's always been the way in Iraqi football.

There's no doubt Uday Hussein, son of Saddam and head of the country's National Olympic Committee until he was killed in a firefight last year, was an evil man whose treatment of athletes who failed to deliver the right results was abhorrent.

Yet claims that footballers were subject to widespread torture are questioned by head coach Adnan Hamad. He said: "I was fired once as coach of a national team, but I lived. I was even brought back.

"I can't say I know anyone who was tortured. Maybe it happened but I don't know about it and I've been around Iraqi soccer for a long time."

The twist in Hamad's tale is that he took over the team earlier this season after inspirational German Bernd Stange was advised to quit in the face of credible threats to his safety.

If you believe what you read in certain newspapers, members of the Iraqi team would rather have the American army follow Stange out of Baghdad. Told about the Bush election campaign's exploitation of the presence of Iraq and Afghanistan at the Olympic Games, midfielder Salih Sadir is alleged to have said: "We don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country."

Team-mate Ahmed Manajid is quoted as asking of the President: "How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?"

Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Iraq Olympic team in Athens, suggested some members of the media had manipulated the players: "It is possible something was lost in translation," he said. "Whoever posed these questions knew the answers would be negative."

President of the Iraq Football Federation is Hussain Saeed Mohamed, who held a position of some influence under deposed dictator Saddam.

"We trust him," said Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA.

It all makes for the kind of fairytale you wouldn't tell to your children.