AZIZI DOWNPLAYS IRAN-FIFA DISPUTE

Sportinglife - Iranian legend Khodadad Azizi has played down the problems that nearly resulted in his country's exclusion from Tuesday's draw for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

The three-time Asian Cup winners were threatened with expulsion from next year's tournament after FIFA announced the suspension of the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) in November due to political interference in its affairs.

However, FIFA president Sepp Blatter revealed on Sunday that the ban was to be lifted after agreement had been reached with the IRIFF, allowing Iran to be included in the draw for the 2007 finals, to be held in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday evening.

On Monday, former Asian Player of the Year Azizi said that the nature of the disagreement was not so great that it would have scuppered the participation of one of the continent's top football nations in next year's tournament.

"The people of Iran live with football and they place great value in the game," said the former Cologne striker, who sent Iran through to the 1998 World Cup with his famous equaliser in a play-off draw with Australia.

"For them, it is natural for Iran to participate in the Asian Cup and our presence in the tournament also helps to bring great value to it.

"I really don't think that the problems we had with FIFA were too big to have prevented us from competing in this tournament."

Azizi, Asian Player of the Year in 1996, will be assisting in the Asian Cup final draw at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, along with former Asian football stars Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan, Fan Zhiyi of China, Kim Joo-sung of Korea Republic and Mohesin Al Jamaan of Saudi Arabia.

The draw on Tuesday evening will see the 16 finalists placed in four groups of four for the 2007 finals, which will take place next July in South East Asia.

In addition to the four co-hosts, the other finalists are Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, South Korea, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, first-timers Australia and defending champions Japan.

The seedings for the draw are to be announced by the AFC on Tuesday morning.