Iran to invite German football president to Tehran

The head of the Iranian Football Federation (FFI), Ali Kafashian, will send an invitation letter to his German counterpart, Theo Zwanziger, for a visit to Tehran to expand cooperation between the two federations, the daily reported without giving further details.

FFI spokesman Hassan Qafari on Sunday confirmed the Iran daily report and told Fars news agency that Zwanziger has recently had a meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Germany in Berlin and said he was interested in visiting Iran.

The German national team played a friendly game against Iran in October 2004 with the aim of helping the quake-hit people of Bam in south-eastern Iran. The game, in front of more than 100,000 enthusiastic Iranian fans in Tehran's Azadi stadium, ended 2-0 for the German side, with goals by Fabian Ernst and Thomas Brdaric. Before the game, the German football federation donated 1 million euros (1.6 million dollars) for Bam which was devastated in December 2003 by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, killing more than 30,000 and making tens of thousands homeless.