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TRANSCRIPT
Effusive fans waving Iraqi flags gather at Sydney Airport to offer their thanks to former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold, who has led Iraq to a spot at this year's World Cup.
Iraq took the 48th and final place at the tournament after a two goals to one win over Bolivia in their playoff in Mexico.
The fans ecstatic- and dreaming, already, of something bigger.
Male fan 1 : "I would like to thank coach Arnold for his work. Bring us back to the World Cup and hopefully we'll do better in the World Cup and beat France."
Young fan: "He's the best coach in the world. He took us to the World Cup, and I want to say thank you to him"
Male fan 2: "Massive thank you to Graham Arnold for what he has done to the Iraqi national team. It's been a 40-year wait. We thank him so much. It's the great Aussie spirit, along with the fighting spirit of the Iraqi players. I see it as a magical combination basically. Get the team over the line. The Aussie spirit with the Iraqi fighting spirit has been amazing."
Also waiting for Arnold at Sydney Airport was someone maybe even happier than the fans to see him- his wife, Sarah.
"We didn't really realise how hard it was going to be for him because it's been a hard ten months since he's been there, but he did the job and we're very, very proud of him and very happy for Iraq, as well. It's fantastic, fantastic. 40 years, it's 40 years, isn't it, yeah. Yeah, so very happy."
Arnold says he wasn't expecting such wild scenes in Australia and expressed regret that he couldn't travel to Iraq to join the celebrations.
"First, I want to apologise to everyone in Iraq that I couldn't go back there to celebrate because obviously the airspace is shut down, everything is shut. But seeing this here is amazing. Thank you very much."
Arnold was cruelly denied ever playing in the World Cup as a player- but now, he has the distinction of becoming the first Australian coach to lead two different nations to a World Cup.
In 2022, he led the Socceroos to the last 16 in Qatar.
When this year's World Cup starts in June, Iraq will face France, Norway and Senegal in the group stage.
"Yeah, I'm just very, very proud of the players and what they did, obviously making many Iraqis very happy. It's all very important and that was the main thing."
It's just the second time Iraq had qualified for the World Cup- and the first time since 1986.
