Tehran - Three European football teams cancelled friendly
games initially agreed to play against Iran's national team amidst
the international row over Iran's nuclear programme and controversial
missile tests, Iranian media reported Sunday.
According to the ISNA press agency, Spanish teams Marbella and
Malaga cited technical reasons for the cancellation, while the
English Premier League club Charlton Athletic directly told the
Iranian side that the cancellation was ordered by the British
government.
Iran has not only defied once again the demand by world powers to
suspend uranium enrichment but also test-fired earlier this week
several missiles, including a long-range missile which some Iranian
officials said would target Israel if the countries' nuclear sites
were attacked.
The Iranian Football Federation plans to sue Charlton Athletics at
the FIFA over what the federation called a one-sided annulment of the
contract.
Iran's national team and its coach Ali Daei have since Thursday
held a training camp in Marbella and planned to play several games as
preparation for the upcoming World Cup qualification games.
The political controversies in the recent years between Iran and
the West, including the nuclear dispute and tirades by President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against arch-foe Israel, have also caused grave
problems for the national team with regards to test games.
At least since the beginning of 2006, most of the European teams -
and reportedly also their governments - prefer not to play against
Iran.
The next stop of Ali Daei's team is the Czech Republic where Iran
is to play two test games against Sparta and Bohemians Prague.
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