Random Soccer Players Who Lost A Game Were Tortured Until They Won In In Saddam Hussein's Iraq (11 items)

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  (#2) Players Joked That They Had Three Homes—The Field, Their Actual Houses, And Uday's Prison

   

  A post shared by @militaria_footlocker on Jul 28, 2017 at 6:05am PDT

  Iraqi players were accustomed to Uday's practices and came to expect spending time in prison. According to former player Ahmed Radi, "We would joke that we had three homes—our own houses, the stadium, and jail."

  Radi, who went on to coach the Iraqi team, stated that it was bizarre to be venerated on the field and by fans but to have the threat of torture hanging over him at all times. If Uday wasn't pleased, players would find themselves in prison for days or weeks at a time.
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  (#10) Uday Had Torture Devices In The Iraqi Soccer Training Facility

  The International Olympic Committee investigated the claims of former Iraqi athletes several times during the '80s and '90s but found no evidence of torture or mistreatment. In 2003, however, near the former Iraqi Football Association building, investigators found a device that resembled a medieval iron maiden. It was "7 feet tall, three feet across, and deep enough to house a grown man... [the device] is essentially a large, metal closet with long spikes on the inside door that closes to impale its victim." 

  In 2004, the Iraqi Olympic Committee put numerous devices on display that had been used by Uday and his men. Whips, vices, and metal masks were exhibited, as well as the iron maiden. 

   
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  (#9) Uday's Men Had Mixed Feelings About Carrying Out His Orders

  On one occasion, Ahmed Radi recalled that he was supposed to have six lashes to his feet because he committed six mistakes in a match. He said about the incident:

  "The guards at the jail were fans of mine, and when they took me into the room for my beating, they told me to shout out as if in pain while they made a sound like flogging," he said. "For the final blow, the sixth, they apologized and said they had to really hit me, in case Uday checked for marks on my feet. They were very afraid he would punish them if he didn't find any."

  Sharar Haydar was, unfortunately, in the hands of a guard who wasn't as lenient. When he was tortured, Haydar "asked the guard how he could ever forgive himself." He laughed and responded that "if he didn't do it, Uday would do it to him."
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  (#12) Uday Hussein Saw Athletic Failure As A Disgrace To Himself And To Iraq

   

  A post shared by Richard Aliff (@richard.aliff) on Jul 21, 2017 at 5:25pm PDT

  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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  (#5) Players That Underperformed Had The Soles Of Their Feet Beaten

  One of the most common ways that Uday inflicted pain upon his players was to beat the bottoms of their feet. After the Iraqi team lost a World Cup qualifying match, he reportedly ordered that the whole team have their feet caned. Uday kept track of how many lashes each player should receive on a private "score card" that he carried with him. Players tried to avoid being noticed by Uday because once they were, he would target them repeatedly. Uday would often put an entire group of players into one cell and beat them with sticks.
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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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