AS CPT PATTI TOLD US ON TUESDAY.

We have handed the stadium over to the Iraqi's. The logistics base is now centered at the Police College.

The US army on Wednesday handed back to the Iraqi people Baghdad's "International Stadium of the People" which it has occupied since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

"The handing over of the stadium is part of US efforts aimed at normalising the situation in Iraq," said Ahmed al-Hajjia al-Samarrai, head of the body charged with revitalising the country's sporting activities.

"I thank the US forces for having protected this sporting centre from acts of looting and sabotage" that ravaged much of Baghdad after the fall of the Baath regime on April 9, Samarrai said.

"It is us who asked the Americans to protect the stadium. We also asked that they keep some of their troops outside the stadium to guard it. They asked us to form, if possible, a protection force."

And as a part of it all...there was this.

Az-Zawra crushed the Americans 11-0 in a symbolic match