Iran suspended from all international soccer -- FIFA

Iran has been suspended from all international soccer activity because of government interference in running the game in the country, world ruling body FIFA said.The move comes just five months after Iran took part in the World Cup finals in Germany and a week after they secured a place in the 2007 Asian Cup finals, winning their qualifying group by beating South Korea 2-0 in Tehran.An Iranian news agency said Iran did not accept the decision and described it as "completely illegitimate." Fans in the soccer-mad country were stunned.

FIFA's Emergency Committee, composed of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and one representative of each of the six FIFA confederations took the decision at a meeting on Wednesday.In a statement FIFA said they had decided to "suspend the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) from all international activity due to government interference in football matters and violation of Article 17 of the FIFA Statutes." Article 17 relates to the independence of FAs free of any government interference.

he FIFA statement continued: "The FIFA Emergency Committee took this decision after determining that the IRIFF was not adhering to the principles of the FIFA Statutes regarding the independence of member associations, the independence of the decision-making process of the football governing body in each country and the way in which changes in the leadership of associations are brought about."

FIFA is demanding the establishment of an IRIFF Normalization Committee appointed by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It also wants the IRIFF to draft new statutes and organize new elections.