The football team's No. 1 fan

One of the perks of being President is free tickets to the World Cup - as long as your country qualifies for the finals, that is. So it's not surprising that, according to reports, President Ahmadinejad is keen to support his team in Germany.

He's an avid keen soccer fan, by all accounts, and the head of Iran's Football Federation told the Reuters news agency that the President was planning to make the trip.

But surely that won't be allowed, at least until the whole rumpus about nuclear weapons is sorted out? There's also the matter of Ahmadinejad questioning whether the Holocaust ever happened. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.

These questions may never be answered, as it looks like the visit is little more than a rumour.

Iran's Student News Agency spoke to the football chief behind the Reuters story, Mohammad Dadkan, who explained how the story had come about.

A Reuters reporter asked if the president would come. "My answer to him was that it is natural that each nations president would show love towards their national team and if he finds time his participation would be a honor for us," Mr Dadkan replied. It seems his exact meaning, ie 'No', was lost in translation.

Comments

[Winston]

The regime's foreign affairs' spokesman just denied the report!