Iran-Aliabadi-Politics
Head of Iran's Physical Education Organization (PEO) Mohammad Aliabadi said on Sunday accused certain countries including the UK and Egypt of involving politics in sport affairs.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session, Aliabadi said that the said countries called off their friendly games with Iran's national soccer team due to political issues.

"Despite this, we're scheduled to play friendly games with a number of foreign teams from various parts of the world," he said but named no specific team.

Iran's national soccer team was supposed to play friendly matches with Charlton club of UK and Egyptian national football team but the games were cancelled unilaterally.

The friendly matches were aimed at getting ready for second round matches for the 2010 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup qualification.

Iran's Football Federation had lodged a complaint with FIFA over the issue.