History Jorvan Vieira On 25 May 2007, Jorvan Vieira was appointed as head coach. Under him, Iraq reached the final of the 2007 WAFF Championship and won the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Vieira resigned after the Asian Cup.

Jorvan Vieira was reappointed in September 2008. After a disappointing 2009 Arabian Gulf Cup, Vieira was sacked.

Egil Olsen Egil Olsen was appointed as coach on 17 September 2007. Under him, Iraq advanced to the third round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, but after a 1–1 draw with China, the FA sacked Olsen and replaced him with Adnan Hamad.

Adnan Hamad Hamad was appointed on 27 February 2008 to lead Iraq in the remaining 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Iraq failed to advance to the final round as a 1–0 defeat to Qatar saw them finish in third in the group. Following this, the Iraq FA disbanded the team and sacked Hamad.

Bora Milutinović Under Bora, Iraq participated in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, which they qualified for by winning the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. They started the tournament with a 0–0 draw with hosts South Africa, before losing to UEFA Euro 2008 winners Spain by one goal to nil. Iraq drew the last game 0–0 with New Zealand and were knocked out.

Nadhim Shaker Nadhim Shaker was appointed as caretaker coach between July and November 2009 and won the 2009 UAE International Cup.

Wolfgang Sidka Wolfgang Sidka was appointed coach in August 2010 to lead Iraq in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. Iraq reached the quarter finals, as they lost 1–0 to Australia. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, Iraq advanced to the third round but Sidka's contract was not renewed and he was succeeded by Zico in August 2011.

Zico Zico signed a contract with Iraq Football Federation on 28 August 2011 and first managed the national team in a match against Jordan on 2 September 2011. He won the group in the third round thus advancing to the final round.

Zico resigned as coach of the Iraqi national team on 27 November 2012 after little more than a year in the post, saying the country's football association had failed to fulfill the terms of his contract. He had 10 wins and six draws in 21 games with Iraq.

Hakim Shaker Hakeem Shaker took over as interim coach and lost the finals of both the 2012 WAFF Championship and 2013 Arabian Gulf Cup. He was reappointed in September 2013 and qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup by beating China 3–1. However, Iraq finished bottom of the group in the 2014 Arabian Gulf Cup leading to the sacking of Hakeem Shaker and the appointment of Radhi Shenaishil.

Vladimir Petrović In February 2013, Vladimir Petrović was appointed for the remaining World Cup qualifiers, but lost all three matches and Iraq finished bottom of their group. Petrovic was sacked in September 2013.

Radhi Shenaishil On 13 December 2014, Radhi Shenaishil was appointed as coach to lead Iraq in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Under Radhi, Iraq defeated Iran in the quarter-finals in penalties and finished the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in fourth place, after losing 2–3 to United Arab Emirates in third/fourth place play-off. After the tournament, Shenaishil returned to managing Qatar SC.

On 20 April 2016, Radhi Shenaishil was re-appointed to lead Iraq in the final round. After losing five of their first seven games, Iraq were eliminated and Shenaishil was sacked.

Akram Salman Iraq appointed Akram Salman as manager but he was sacked in June 2015 after losing 4–0 to Japan in a friendly match.

Yahya Alwan Yahya Alwan was appointed in August 2015. Due to poor performances, Abdul-Ghani Shahad replaced him as interim coach for the final qualifier in March 2016.

Abdul-Ghani Shahad Abdul-Ghani Shahad was appointed as caretaker coach and led Iraq to qualification for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and the final round by beating Vietnam 1–0.

Basim Qasim Basim Qasim was appointed in May 2017 to lead Iraq for the remaining qualifiers. He led Iraq to the semifinals of the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup. The FA decided not to renew his contract in August 2018.

Srečko Katanec On 3 September 2018, Srečko Katanec was appointed as head coach on a three-year contract. Under Katanec, Iraq reached the round of 16 of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup as they lost to eventual champions Qatar by one goal.

In August 2019, Iraq finished as runners-up of the 2019 WAFF Championship. He also led Iraq to the semifinals of the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup.

On 16 June 2021, it was rumoured that the Iraqi FA and Katanec are having collision after the former's failure to pay salary for the manager and it was hinted that Katanec might leave the Iraqi team. He ended up resigning less than a week later.

Dick Advocaat On 1 August 2021, Dick Advocaat was unveiled as the Iraq manager ahead of the third round of World Cup 2022 qualifiers. However, after 6 qualifiers with 4 draws and 2 losses, Advocaat, along with assistant manager Cor Pot resigned on 21 November 2021 ahead of the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup.

Željko Petrović On 21 November 2021, it was announced that Željko Petrović, one of three assistants Advocaat had during his tenure, stayed on to become the caretaker manager which would last until the end of the Arab Cup, with Rahim Hameed, Advocaat's third assistant, to stay on as assistant manager. Despite crashing out of the group stages, he was given a permanent role, but Hameed was sacked. A win, a draw and a loss later, and Petrović was sacked on 2 February 2022.

Abdul-Ghani Shahad Abdul-Ghani Shahad was appointed as caretaker manager of the national team for the second time, beating Zambia in a friendly in Baghdad, then taking on the UAE and beating them 1-0 but drawing against Syria. Despite being unbeaten in these three matches, Iraq failed to finish third and advance to the fourth round of qualifiers and the FA decided not to give Shahad the job full time.

Radhi Shenaishil While the FA's search for a new manager was ongoing, newly appointed olympic team manager Radhi Shenaishil was made in charge of the national team for the 2022 Jordan International Tournament in September 2022, and then later was in charge of friendly games against Mexico and Ecuador.

Jesús Casas On 5 November 2022, the FA confirmed that Jesús Casas would take charge of the national team for four years on an annual payment of $1m split into monthly wages. Radhi Shenaishil would lead the national team for the Mexico and Ecuador games in Spain, while he would take charge of the games against Costa Rica and Venezuela in Iraq, with his first came coming on 17 November 2022. Those two games were cancelled, so the national team played an intra-squad friendly under Casas’ view. His first official match came on 30 December 2022 against Kuwait at the Al-Minaa Olympic Stadium as a warm up game for the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup in Basra, then managed his first competitive match against Oman on 6 January 2023 at the aforementioned tournament.

On 15 April 2025, following Iraq's defeat to Palestine in the third round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Casas was relieved of his duties as head coach.

List of managers The team has had 41 different coaches, of whom 21 have been from Iraq. Only record the results that affect the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. See FIFA 'A' matches criteria.

Managers NameFromToTenurePWDLWin %Major Tournaments and Achievements Cornel Drăgușin19621963 Adil BasherJune 1963November 1964 1964 Arab Nations Cup - Champions Shawqi AboudJuly 1965September 1965 Adil BasherMarch 1966April 1966 1966 Arab Nations Cup - Champions Jalil ShihabMarch 1967March 1967 Ljubomir KokezaMarch 1969March 1969 Yuri IllichevNovember 1969July 1971 Adil BasherSeptember 1971January 1972 Abdelilah HassanMay 1972May 1972 Teleki GyulaFebruary 1973March 1973 Thamir MuhsinAugust 1973August 1973 Wathiq NajiFebruary 1974June 1974 Thamir MuhsinAugust 1974September 1974 Wathiq NajiJanuary 1975January 1975 Danny McLennanApril 1975April 1976 Lenko Grčić "Kaka"June 1976January 1977 1976 AFC Asian Cup - Fourth place Jamal SalihJuly 1977July 1977 Lenko Grčić "Kaka"August 1977July 1978 Ammo BabaDecember 1978February 1980 5th Arabian Gulf Cup - Champions Wathiq NajiFebruary 1980March 1980 Anwar JassamJune 1980July 1980 Vojo GardaševićFebruary 1981March 1981 Douglas AzizMarch 1981March 1981 Ammo BabaAugust 1981August 1984 1982 Asian Games - Champions 7th Arabian Gulf Cup - Champions Akram SalmanOctober 1984June 1985 Anwar JassamJuly 1985August 1985 1985 Arab Nations Cup - Champions 1985 Pan Arab Games - Champions Wathiq NajiSeptember 1985September 1985 Jorge VieiraOctober 1985November 1985 1986 FIFA World Cup - Qualification EduFebruary 1986March 1986 Zé MárioMarch 1986April 1986 Evaristo de MacedoMay 1986June 1986 1986 FIFA World Cup - Group stage Akram SalmanJuly 1986October 1986 Ammo BabaFebruary 1987June 1988 9th Arabian Gulf Cup - Champions Jamal SalihJuly 1988July 1988 Ammo BabaJuly 1988January 1989 1988 Arab Nations Cup - Champions Jamal SalihJanuary 1989October 1989 Anwar JassamOctober 1989March 1990 Adnan DirjalAugust 1992 October 1993 Ammo BabaOctober 1993October 1993 Anwar JassamMarch 1995 July 1995 Ammo BabaAugust 1996August 1996 Yahya AlwanNovember 1996 June 1997 Ayoub OdishoJune 1997June 1997 Ammo BabaAugust 1997August 1997 Akram SalmanNovember 1998 November 1998 Najih HumoudJune 1999 November 1999 Adnan HamadJanuary 2000 September 2000 Milan ŽivadinovićOctober 2000 October 2000 Adnan Hamad January 2001 September 2001 Rudolf BelinSeptember 2001 January 2002 Adnan Hamad January 2002 September 2002 2002 WAFF Championship - Champions Bernd StangeOctober 2002 April 2004 Adnan HamadApril 2004 January 2005 Akram Salman12 January 2005 22 May 2007 2005 West Asian Games - Champions Jorvan Vieira25 May 200729 July 2007 2007 AFC Asian Cup - Champions Egil Olsen17 September 200726 February 2008 Adnan Hamad 27 February 200825 June 2008 Jorvan Vieira2 September 20086 February 2009 Radhi Shenaishil 22 February 200921 May 2009 Bora Milutinović23 April 200920 June 2009 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup - Group stage Nadhim Shaker10 July 200918 November 2009 Wolfgang Sidka8 August 20108 August 2011 Zico28 August 2011 28 November 2012 Hakeem Shaker3 December 2012 6 February 2013 Vladimir Petrović21 February 2013 10 September 2013 Hakeem Shaker 10 September 2013 29 November 2014 Radhi Shenaishil 13 December 2014 21 February 2015 2015 AFC Asian Cup - Fourth place Akram Salman 25 February 2015 17 June 2015 Yahya Alwan 3 August 2015 24 March 2016 Abdul-Ghani Shahad24 March 2016 29 March 2016 Radhi Shenaishil 20 April 2016 10 April 2017 Basim Qasim 22 May 2017 5 August 2018 Srečko Katanec 4 September 201830 June 2021 Dick Advocaat 31 July 202123 November 2021 Željko Petrović 23 November 20212 February 2022 Abdul-Ghani Shahad3 March 2022 29 March 2022 Radhi Shenaishil 7 August 2022 12 November 2022 Jesús Casas 12 November 2022 15 April 2025 25th Arabian Gulf Cup - Champions Graham Arnold 10 May 2025 present2026 FIFA World Cup - Qualification

References

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