Iran: FIFA Ban Is "Illegitimate"

GOAL - An Iranian news agency has described FIFA’s decision to ban the country from international football as “completely illegitimate.”

FIFA’s emergency committee agreed on the ban yesterday due to political interference in the way the game is run in the football-mad nation.

The committee's official statement read that it had been decided to "suspend the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) from all international activity due to government interference in football matters and violation of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes."

A source close to the government was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency that:

"Iran will definitely not accept the decision. FIFA wants to put pressure on Iranian football” and argued that the move was "completely illegitimate".

A former Iranian Football Federation employee told Reuters:

"When they appoint a person who knows nothing about sports as the head of physical education this is the result."

"When (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad won the elections, they started to change all the managers including football managers. This is the result of having inexperienced people," Reuters quoted a football fan as saying.