Iraq's Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, has announced an early end to the workday on Jan. 29 in order to allow Iraqis to watch the men's football national team take on Jordan in the Asian Cup.

Not favourites

Iraq's national team is doing well in the Asian Cup, winning all three of their group stage matches, a feat shared with host Qatar, and Iran.

It was not a simple path through either, having to face Indonesia, Vietnam, and the top-ranked team in Asia, Japan.

Iraq's performance was deemed unlikely by their Spanish coach Jesus Casas.

According to Reuters, Casas was quoted by Reuters as saying that the team were "not favourites", and that any one mistake by the team could end with their elimination.

He also said that he was happy with the team's performance thus far, and that the nation of Iraq was "very proud of their players and their performances".

Watch Party

Iraq's government appears to have acknowledged that pride, with the official government X account, formerly known as Twitter, tweeting that the PM had directed official hours on Jan. 29 to end at 2pm, in order to allow Iraqis to watch the match.

رئيس مجلس الوزراء يوجه ان يكون انتهاء الدوام الرسمي ليوم غد الإثنين الساعة الثانية بعد الظهر لمؤازرة منتخبنا في مُباراته أمام نظيره الأردني.#الحكومة_العراقية pic.twitter.com/MngNdOoJfE

— Government of Iraq - الحكومة العراقية (@IraqiGovt) January 28, 2024

The match takes place at 2:30pm Iraqi time.

Iraq has been in this kind of position before.

Being desperately unfancied, they managed to pull off a fairy-tale win in the 2007 Asian Cup, despite the country still recovering from war at the time.

Their fans will hope that they'll be able to pull together another similar run, and they'll be there to take it all in.

Top image via Iraq National Team/IG