Iran handed FIFA international ban

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ZURICH, Switzerland -- Iran have been suspended from all international football activity because of government interference in running the game in the country, FIFA have said.

The move comes just five months after Iran took part in the World Cup finals in Germany and a week after they secured a place in the 2007 Asian Cup finals, winning their qualifying group by beating South Korea 2-0 in Tehran.

An Iranian news agency said Iran did not accept the decision and decribed it as "completely illegitimate".

FIFA's Emergency Committee, composed of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and one representative of each of the six FIFA confederations took the decision on Wednesday.

In a statement FIFA said they had 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."

Article 17 relates to the independence of FAs free of any government interference.

The FIFA statement continued: "The FIFA Emergency Committee took this decision after determining that the IRIFF was not adhering to the principles of the FIFA Statutes regarding the independence of member associations, the independence of the decision-making process of the football governing body in each country and the way in which changes in the leadership of associations are brought about."

FIFA is demanding the establishment of an IRIFF Normalisation Committee appointed by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It also wants the IRIFF to draft new statutes and organise new elections.

"Iran will definitely not accept the decision. FIFA wants to put pressure on Iranian football," Iran's Mehr News Agency quoted an informed source as saying, describing the move as "completely illegitimate".

In August 2006, FIFA and the AFC gave the Iranian federation a deadline of Nov.15 to reinstate elected president Mohammad Dadkan and to comply with the relevant provisions of the FIFA Statutes.

As this deadline was not met, Iran has been suspended.

A former Iranian federation employee, who left with Dadkan, said: "When they appoint a person who knows nothing about sports as the head of physical education (Dadkan's boss) this is the result."

"This shows (Iran's) mismanagement," the former employee, who asked not to be named, continued.

Iran are the second country to face such action in the space of a month. Kenya were suspended on October 24 for failing to respect signed agreements and for recurrent problems in its federation.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidential race in 2005 and has replaced many officials in a range of institutions since taking office, drawing criticism from opponents who say the new appointments are often inexperienced.

The president dismisses such charges.

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