After Iraq's elimination following their loss to Jordan, coach Jesus Casas narrowly avoided being assaulted by reporters in the press conference room. Reporters questioned why the Spanish coach was so focused on answering questions from the press, neglecting his pre-match preparations. He was then unexpectedly attacked by several reporters who rushed towards him.
A group of Iraqi journalists rushed forward, attempting to assault coach Jesus Casas (Screenshot).
Speaking about this, coach Jesus Casas said: "I told them that we had won three group stage matches thanks to pre-match interviews. However, they kept asking me about this and then started threatening me."
The situation started to get chaotic, with many of them demanding that the press conference be suspended, but I said no because there were still many international reporters who wanted to ask questions."
Subsequently, the Iraqi Football Federation issued a statement defending coach Jesus Casas. The organization announced: "We strongly object to what happened in the press conference room concerning coach Jesus Casas."
Coach Jesus Casas strongly criticized the group of reporters who attempted to assault him (Photo: AFC).
Those images are even more heartbreaking than the Iraqi national team's elimination from the 2023 Asian Cup. Those are not images from the mainstream Iraqi press."
Coach Jesus Casas criticized his attackers: "This has never happened to me before. I don't know if it will happen again in the future."
Some of these people aren't mainstream journalists. They just have Instagram or YouTube channels with thousands of followers. They're not professional media people."
Despite Iraq's elimination, coach Jesus Casas is not concerned about the future. He wants to focus on preparing the West Asian team for the goal of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. In the second round of the tournament, Iraq is leading with two wins out of two matches against Indonesia and Vietnam.
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