Berlin team ready to take on Iranian women footballers

IRNA - Berlin's local amateur women's football club SV Al Dersimspor is ready for a friendly face-off with Iran's women's national football team, due to take place in the German capital on June 1, a top club official told IRNA on Wednesday.

"We are extremely delighted that the Iranian women's national football team is coming. We will do our utmost to be very good hosts, just like the Iranian side was last year when our team played in Tehran," said the deputy chairman of Dersimspor, Guersel Yildiz.

"We had to move to a bigger stadium because we are expecting up to 5,000 spectators for the match," he added.

Yildiz stressed that the upcoming game was aimed "at promoting projects like women's football and the integration of migrants in Germany".

"We hope to finance these projects with our ticket sales," added Yildiz whose team includes mostly Turkish but also Arab, German, Japanese and Polish women footballers.

He pointed out that the Berlin and German Football Federation have made financial commitments to cover part of the game cost, estimated at around 14,000-15,000 euros.

The Iranians will pay for the flight tickets while the German host will cover all other expenses, Yildiz said.

Iran's female national football squad will arrive in Berlin on May 31 and depart Germany on June 4.

Dersimspor managed a 2-2 tie against the Iranian women national football squad last year when they met each other at Tehran's Ararat stadium.

It was the first match of an Iranian women's football team against a European rival.