In briefIraq will compete in the World Cup for the first time in 40 years tomorrow.The team's coach, Aussie Graham Arnold, is the first Australian manager to take on two World Cups.Australian coach Graham Arnold has steered Iraq's national team back onto the world stage for the first time in 40 years and their second ever appearance in the tournament.Such is his hero status that football officials tried to get him citizenship, but the story of how he got there is unexpected.Arnold is the first Australian coach to take teams to two World Cups, guiding the Socceroos to Qatar in 2022 before switching allegiances.Over the course of 28 months, with eight spent living in Baghdad, he's taken the squad through an arduous 21 qualifying games complicated by grounded flights out of the Middle East.On Wednesday morning Australian time, Arnold's Lions of Mesopotamia go head-to-head with Norway in Boston for their first World Cup match in 40 years. News that makes senseYour trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.How Graham Arnold became Iraq's coachIt's a long way from Sydney to Baghdad, but for the former Socceroos coach, the team's four-decade drought presented a welcome challenge. As the 62-year-old told Guardian Australia, if it had happened at another time, he may not have done it."But the fact that they hadn’t qualified for 40 years was a great challenge. A great opportunity to make 46 million people proud and happy," Arnold said.In May 2025, Arnold's agent had "randomly" called him with news that Iraq was interested in hiring him. Before then, the former Socceroos manager had been "starting to go crazy, sitting at home staring at four walls" for months. Arnold told sports podcast The Howie Games his agent had assumed he wouldn't want to take the job. To which he had responded: "Hang on, why?"As the longest-serving Socceroos manager, Arnold led the team to the World Cup round of 16 in 2022, beating Tunisia and Denmark. It was the furthest the team had made it in the campaign since 2006, and Arnold was the first Australian-born manager to achieve this.Arnold ended a six-year stint as head Socceroos coach in September 2024, amid a poor start to the team's World Cup 2026 qualifying matches."I resigned for the good of the nation and the players. I didn't want to let the country down because I was cooked," he said.All the FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on our World Cup pageHow to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 on SBSWatch all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026 at our On Demand hubThe timing was fortuitous. The following May, Iraq sacked head coach Jesús Casas after a 2-1 defeat to the Palestinian team in the third round of the Asian confederation World Cup qualifiers. Arnold was given three days to make his decision.Arriving in Baghdad, Arnold discovered it wasn't just Casas who had been sacked."I thought I was just replacing the technical staff. They got rid of everyone. The medical staff, the backroom staff, the kit man, you name it, the media staff, they got rid of the lot," he told The Howie Games."Within 10 days, I had to replace about 24 staff members."Another colleague brought onto the staff was the rekindling of a decades-long relationship — on the day that Arnold's tenure was made public, he received a phone call from an Australian number.It was Ali Abbas, a former Iraqi international who had played under Arnold for Sydney FC in the A-League. He'd returned to Iraq in 2016 following the death of his father. Arnold brought Abbas on as translator and right-hand man. "He's done a fantastic job right from day one," Arnold said."Without him, we wouldn't be where we are today because the hardest problem was the language barrier."While nine of the Lions were born in Europe — Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway and the UK — Arnold says 80 per cent speak Arabic. A complicated road to the World CupEarlier this year, airspace closures, grounded flights and shuttered embassies due to the war in the Middle East complicated the team's ability to assemble in Monterrey, Mexico, for the intercontinental play-offs, the final qualifying match against Bolivia.Arnold was stranded in the United Arab Emirates, while players based across Iraq and neighbouring countries faced similar delays. Despite this, the Lions prevailed, securing a 2-1 win and their spot in the World Cup.Returning to Australia after the qualifier, Arnold was met with hundreds of members Sydney's Iraqi community, who gathered with flags, drums and Arabic music, celebrating the win.Speaking with SBS News in April, Arnold congratulated the players, attributing their victory to their resolve under pressure."I must congratulate the players who played with real Iraqi mentality, fighting and putting their bodies on the line and that's why we won the game.""I am so happy that we've made 46 million people happy, and especially with what's going on in the Middle East at the moment."You can watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ live, free and exclusive on SBS, SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.FIFA World Cup 2026™ at SBS On Demand: get match ready.For the latest from SBS News, download our app and subscribe to our newsletter.