Abstarct: The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying the competencies required for coaching youth football in Iraq. In this study, the participants included experienced coaches, technical managers of football academies, university professors, and researchers specializing in football coaching and related topics. The selection of participants was baxsed on the purposive sampling method and considering accessibility and awareness of football coaching issues, and a total of 13 individuals were selected to participate in the study. This research was applied in nature and adopted an inductive approach, and qualitative data were collected and analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The findings showed that the competencies of youth football coaching in Iraq include five main categories: scientific and cognitive competency (legal knowledge, intercultural knowledge, physical fitness and injury prevention, psychological skills), management and leadership competency (the ability to create motivation, organize the team, and lead it), technical competency (technical and tactical knowledge and instructional skills and performance evaluation), operational competency (coaching skills in training sessions and competitions, training design and planning), and communication and ethical competency (skills in establishing effective communication, ethical and educational knowledge). Also, the challenges of youth football coaching in Iraq included individual and internal problems such as limitations in knowledge and skills, organizational and managerial challenges such as weaknesses in human resource policies and monitoring systems, educational system challenges such as weaknesses in specialized courses and lack of alignment with social conditions, cultural and social challenges such as negative attitudes and the influence of the media, and structural and economic challenges including financial, political, and security problems, which affected the quality of coaching.The results of this study show that in order to improve the status of youth football coaching in Iraq, coaching competencies at different levels should be strengthened and structural and economic challenges should be addressed. The development of educational programs and the removal of existing barriers can have positive effects on the quality of coaching and youth football in Iraq.