Al-Shaab International Stadium

The ground in Baghdad carries the weight of a decade that is not easily forgotten. It opened in 1966 with an invitation from Benfica. The main stand, however, has a memory of its own. It folded in on itself during a sandstorm in 1969, a collapse that happened while the local side Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya were in the middle of a game.

The stands are painted in blocks of green and yellow, a pattern that suggests the empty seats are just waiting for a crowd to arrive. It is not the largest venue in the city anymore, but it holds the history of the 1979 Gulf Cup of Nations, a tournament where Hussein Saeed scored ten goals and proved that the place could still produce magic.

The surface is natural grass, though there are questions about a renovation in 2015 that some sources say replaced it with artificial turf. The truth is less clear; the green is thick, but the maintenance records are split. The capacity dropped after 2010 when the track was repacked and individual seats were installed, a change that modernised the view but shrank the numbers.

The most dramatic night on record was in 1991, when 68,000 people packed inside to watch Al-Shorta play Al-Zawraa. It is a number that feels impossible to reach now, given the way the city has changed. Yet the stands are still here, and the floodlights still work. The roof holds together.