ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Fans of the Duhok-based Zakho SC on Tuesday won the International Federation of Association Football’s (FIFA) 2025 Fan Award for a teddy bear donation campaign supporting children with cancer.
“Fans of Zakho SC have won the FIFA Fan Award 2025,” FIFA said in an announcement.
The award followed a May Iraq Premier League match in which Zakho supporters threw thousands of stuffed teddy bears onto the pitch in a show of solidarity with children battling serious illnesses.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated the fans in a video posted on Instagram. “I congratulate the fans of Zakho SC, whose supporters threw thousands of stuffed children’s toys onto the pitch before their Iraqi domestic league match against Al-Hudood SC - a donation to local youth struggling with illness,” he said.
“For this gesture and for these great emotions, Zakho SC fans, you have been awarded the Best FIFA Fans Award 2025,” Infantino added.
Zakho SC President Ammar Farhad told Rudaw after the award announcement that his "feelings cannot be described... now we know we have become winners."
He credited the victory to the support of Kurds worldwide who voted for the fan club.
FIFA announced in early November that Zakho SC had been named among the world’s top three fanbases and shortlisted for the 2025 Fan Award.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, in mid-November, encouraged Kurds worldwide to vote for the fan club. “Through online voting, I supported Zakho Sports Club fans so that they can win the title of best fans in the world,” he said, calling on “all Kurdistanis, wherever they are,” to join the campaign.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani also urged Iraqi sports fans to support Zakho SC, followed by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who reiterated his call to back the club and other teams across Kurdistan and Iraq.
Fans were able to vote for first-, second-, and third-place choices. Voting opened in mid-November and continued until December 3.
Other nominees included the late Spanish football supporter Manuel Caceres, known for decades of drumming for Spain’s national team, and Argentine superfan Alejandro Ciganotto, who has traveled thousands of kilometers on foot and by hitchhiking to follow Racing Club de Avellaneda.
Founded in 1987, Zakho SC is based in the northern city of Zakho in Duhok province.
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“This global title is not only a victory for Zakho, but a source of pride for the entire sports movement in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq,” Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement congratulating Zakho SC supporters on the award.
“With your enthusiasm and civilized way of support, you turned the stadium into a beautiful painting and conveyed the message of peace, love, and love of life of the Kurdish people to the world,” he added.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also congratulated the fans, saying the achievement was “a great win for sports and for sports fans across Kurdistan and Iraq.”
Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said the joy of the award stemmed from “the solidarity and support of all the people of Kurdistan.”
“This sacred feeling of solidarity, shared destiny and unanimity that exists among the Kurdish people - we hope it will be transferred to politics as well, because this is the right path for our people to take steps toward greater achievements,” Talabani added in a Facebook post.
Leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Bafel Talabani, relayed his “warm congratulations,” emphasizing that the win is a result of “unity of the people of Kurdistan.”
Updated at 4:09pm.