Iran to invite German football president to Tehran

DPA - Iran is to invite the German football federation president to Tehran, the governmental sports daily Iran reported Sunday. The head of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI), Ali Kafashian, will send an invitation letter to his German counterpart, Theo Zwanziger, for a visit to Tehran to expand cooperation between the two federations, the daily reported without giving further details.

FFI spokesman Hassan Qafari on Sunday confirmed the Iran daily report and told Fars news agency that Zwanziger has recently had a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Germany in Berlin and said he was interested in visiting Iran.

The German national team played a friendly game against Iran in October 2004 with the aim of helping the quake-hit people of Bam in south-eastern Iran.

The game, in front of more than 100,000 enthusiastic Iranian fans in Tehran's Azadi stadium, ended 2-0 for the German side, with goals by Fabian Ernst and Thomas Brdaric.

Before the game, the German football federation donated 1 million euros (1.6 million dollars) for Bam which was devastated in December 2003 by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, killing more than 30,000 and making tens of thousands homeless.

Meanwhile the ISNA news agency reported Sunday that Iran's political arch-foe, the US, has invited the Iranian national football team for a ten-day training camp in Los Angeles, California.

An unnamed official of the Iranian Football Federation told ISNA that the invitation by the LA Blues company is currently being evaluated by the country's sports organization and if approved, Iran would leave for the US on June 23.

The official added that Iran would play a friendly against the US national team as well as LA Galaxy, the team of English super star David Beckham.

Iran and the US have played two games. Iran won the first at the 1998 World Cup finals 2-1, while the two teams played to a 1-1 draw in a friendly in the same year in Oakland.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations for almost three decades but the two countries have had limited sports and cultural exchanges during this time-period.

Washington has put Iran into the "axis of evil" and accuses the Islamic state of sponsoring international terrorism and being after the atomic bomb, while Tehran describes the US as "Great Satan" and an enemy of Islam and Moslems worldwide.