AFP - Football's world governing body FIFA has
no intention of banning Iran from the 2006 World Cup finals insisting sport
and politics must not become intertwined.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked widespread outrage recently by
describing the Holocaust as "a myth" and several German politicians called
for FIFA to expel Iran from next year's World Cup in their homeland.
West Germany's 1974 World Cup winner Wolfgang Overath, now president of
Bundesliga side FC Cologne, backed sanctions but FIFA believe mixing sport
and politics is a dangerous cocktail.
"You need to keep politics and sport strictly apart," FIFA spokesman Andreas
Herren told sports agency SID.
"This is concerned with comments from a politician that the international
community must respond to.
"Iran have qualified for the finals and the Iranian Football Federation has
not done anything wrong."
Iran, who failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, begin their World Cup
against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 with further group games against
Portugal and Angola.
