Iran coach dodges political hot potato
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-11 14:20
NUREMBERG, June 10 - Iran coach Branko Ivankovic on Saturday refused to
answer questions regarding the Iranian president's controversial views on the
Holocaust, saying his team was in Germany to make friends.
Speaking on the eve of their World Cup Group D match against Mexico in
Nuremberg, a city associated with the rise of the Nazis and site of their
post-war trial as war criminals, Ivankovic said he was only prepared to talk
about football.
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been widely criticised in Germany and
around the world in the past for questioning if the Holocaust took place and for
making inflammatory remarks about Israel.
Jewish groups have called on the German government to ban him from attending
the World Cup should he decide to come.
"This is not my duty," Ivankovic, a Croat, told reporters, when asked about
the Iran president's remarks.
"This is a political question and it not for me to answer. You can ask me
anything about the game, my team or Mexico."
When pressed on the subject he quoted the World Cup slogan: "What I would say
is this: it is time to make friends".
Some 200 German right-wing extremists chanting "Foreigners Out" were pelted
with apples and tomatoes on Saturday as they marched through World Cup host city
Gelsenkirchen, police said.
Supporters of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), most sporting
shaved heads and black clothes, also shouted "Solidarity with Iran".
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