Iran run into trouble ahead of judgement at Nuremberg

AFP - Iran’s squad hasn’t had the easiest time in its quest for football’s greatest prize — although their troubles have been mainly off the pitch.

The squad managed to carve a relatively smooth path through their Asian group qualifiers, largely thanks to a draw that put them against a tough Japan but weaker sides Bahrain and North Korea.

One match against Japan in Teheran last year, however, was overshadowed by the death of seven fans in a crowd crush. Another away match in Pyongyang descended into a full-scale riot by North Korean fans.

The Iranian team, one of Asia’s top sides and currently 22nd in the Fifa world rankings, have also found them themselves suffering from the fall-out of their hardline government’s worsening relationship with the West.

At one point there was even talk of them being barred from the World Cup, after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and dismissed the Holocaust as a ”myth”.

But despite alarm in Berlin’s political circles, Fifa stuck by its view that “politics and sport need to be kept strictly apart”.

“This is concerned with comments from a politician that the international community must respond to. Iran have qualified for the finals and the Iranian Football Federation has not done anything wrong,” said Fifa spokesman Andreas Herren.

Even though Iran can go to Germany — where their opening match against Mexico will be in Nuremberg, scene of Adolf Hitler’s rallies and the Nazi war crimes trials — other “problems” have beset their preparations.

The Iranian Football Federation had raised the possibility of Ahmadinejad travelling to Germany to support the national team at the June 9-July 9 finals — although this idea was quickly killed off.

Iran’s Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic had worked out a roadmap of warm-up matches at home and abroad, only to discover that few teams were willing to come to Teheran.

“There has been some behind the scenes pressure to prevent us from going ahead with our plans,” the secretary general of Iran’s Football Federation, Mohammad Reza Pahlavan, acknowledged in February.

That came after both Romania and Ukraine refused to travel to Tehran — with Romanian Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu warning of the “risks” involved — and a deal to bring Argentina over also fell through even though Iran was ready to pay the huge appearance fee.

And plans last year to play English Championship club Millwall also collapsed due to fears for public safety. There had been fears the match would be the target for far-right groups to attack Muslims.

Like it or not, Iranian players have also had their performance in Germany tied to the country’s nuclear programme.

“The West is against Iran’s glory and do not want the Iranian youth to be glorious in any field,” Ahmadinejad told the national squad when he donned a football kit and paid a surprise visit to a training session in March.

“But if our youth achieve something in the World Cup, in the energy sector, in science and in art, two thirds of the world will be happy,” he asserted, calling on the team to be “the surprise team in 2006 World Cup and make it to the second round... since the prayers of 70 million Iranians are with you”.

Iran are in Group D with Mexico, Portugal and Angola and have chosen the southern German city of Friedrichshafen as their World Cup base.