Tehran supported the move by Ashkan Dejagah to refuse to play against Israel for political reasons.

FRANKFURT, Germany, Nov. 10--German football federation bosses appeared Friday to give Iranian-born midfielder Ashkan Dejagah a second chance to play for his adopted country.
According to AFP, the VfL Wolfsburg midfielder, born in Tehran but who grew up in Berlin, caused something of a stir last month when he refused to travel to Israel with the under-21 squad.
Dejagah refused to travel to Israel due to political reasons, which led to him explaining his actions to federation bosses. On Friday, the federation announced they had called him up again ahead of 2009 under-21 European Championships qualifying matches against Iceland and Luxembourg this month.
In an interview with sport Bild magazine last Wednesday, the 21-year-old former Berlin player explained that he felt “half German, half Iranian“.
Iran does not recognize the state of Israel and forbids its citizens from traveling there.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10-- Iran’s track cycling team will travel to Malaysia to attend the Asian Cup “Kuala“ on Nov. 16. Ê
According to IRNA, the team will participate in 6-day training camp in the host country prior to the event itself.Ê
Iranian athletes will take part in Australian World Cup to be held in Sydney on Nov. 27 after attending the Asian Cup.Ê
A total of 15 Iranian cyclists will attend both events.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has warned that Michel Platini's proposals to change the Champions League will put the integrity of the competition at risk.

LONDON, Nov. 10--Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has warned that Michel Platini’s proposals to change the Champions League will put the integrity of the competition at risk.
As reported by AFP, UEFA president Platini wants to make the Champions League more accessible across Europe and is determined to include six champions from the bottom 40 countries of UEFA’s membership, as well as making places available for domestic cup winners.
Platini may accept a compromise whereby each association would decide whether the cup winners should replace the lowest league qualifier for Europe’s top club tournament.
But Wenger fears his fellow Frenchman is in danger of undermining the competition because too many matches will be non-contests. This season’s group stages have already seen Arsenal beat Slavia Prague 7-0 and Liverpool thrash Besiktas 8-0.
“You have to be careful not to change the Champions League too much by bringing in even more weaker teams because you could find yourself with games with no meaning,“ Wenger said. “That would be very dangerous for the quality of the competition.“
Wenger used Wednesday’s Champions League tie against Czech side Slavia to rest eight of his first team regulars but there is no chance of a break for the coach.
So it’s just as well that the notorious workaholic claims he wouldn’t know what to do even if he did have time to get away from football.
Wenger will be back on the bench at Reading on Monday as Arsenal try to maintain their position on top of the Premier League. The constant grind of top-level competition can cause managers to burn out if they let the stress get to them. It’s not a problem that bothers Wenger.
“No one has found a machine to measure the pressure so I don’t know how much damage it does to me compared to somebody else,“ he said.
“Many people say I am under massive pressure and it is terrible to experience but you cannot measure it to see if it is worse than someone else or not. I keep fit, go to the gym, go running. I do a little everyday. But for me if you are in sport then you are in sport. The players are under physical stress that I am not. Yes, there is mental stress but I like to be ’in there’ and keep in,“ he added.

PARIS, Nov. 10--Renault have denied confidential data brought to the team by a former McLaren engineer was used in their 2007 F1 car, AFP wrote.
Renault are to appear before the FIA’s world motorsport council on 6 December to answer a charge over the matter. The French team revealed engineer Phil Macereth was suspended on 6 September, and claimed every effort was made to erase the data from their systems.
“None of this information was used to influence design decisions,“ said Renault in a statement on Friday.
McLaren were fined $100 million and thrown out of the constructors’ championship after being found guilty on a similar charge in September.
An FIA statement alleged the information included “the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, together with details of the fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren cars.“
Renault admitted the information was brought to the team by Macereth, who loaded it onto their F1 file system “without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team.“
The statement added: “We have cooperated fully with McLaren and the FIA in this matter to the extent that the team has invited McLaren’s independent experts to come and assess the team’s computer systems and inspect the cars and the design records.“
Renault finished third in the constructors championship behind Ferrari and BMW Sauber after failing to win a race in 2007.

Vahid Shamsaei

TEHRAN, Nov. 9--Vahid Shamsaei, the Iranian futsal player, is nominated for Asian Player of the Year 2007.
The iconic player succeeded to win the futsal Asian Championship with Iran’s national futsal team in Tokyo early current Iranian year (started March 21), Mehr News Agency reported.
Shamsaei is also world’s best goal scorer with 315 goals. He is Iran’s only representative in the event’s individual section.
The AFC 2007 Awards matches will be held in Sydney on Nov. 28.

Kevin Stadler tees off on the 9th hole on the first day of the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai on Saturday.

SHANGHAI, China, Nov. 10--England’s Ross Fisher produced a second 68 to trail Kevin Stadler by three strokes at the halfway point of the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai on Saturday.
According to Reuters, American Stadler finished 11-under-par, with world number two Phil Mickelson a shot back in second place. That left Fisher and Scotland’s Simon Yates, who matched Mickelson’s 66 on Friday, tied for third on eight-under.
Ernie Els (69) and Sergio Garcia (70) remain well off the pace while Colin Montgomerie missed the cut. The Scotsman added a miserable 78 to his first-round 73 to be seven-over-par.
Open champion Padraig Harrington lost ground on the leaders with a par round of 72 leaving him in a group at four under and a tie for 13th. Three-time major winner Vijay Singh and South African Andrew McLardy were in decent shape at seven-under at the $5m showpiece event.
Fisher, who landed his first career win at the KLM Open in Holland in the summer, reached the turn at one-under after following an early bogey with birdies at the par-four fifth and par-five eighth.
The 26-year-old picked up a shot to start the back nine, but after slipping back to one under with a bogey two holes later, he produced a strong finish with three birdies over his final five holes.
His last shot of the round was a 10-foot putt for birdie which followed an errant tee-shot into rough.

ISFAHAN, Nov. 10--Uzbek referee, will officiate the second leg of the AFC Champions League final at Saitama on Nov. 14.
Rawshan Irmatov will be assisted by two Australian referees in the second leg of the match between Japan’s Urawa Reds and Iran’s Sepahan, IRNA repored.
Two teams had 1-1 draw in the opening leg of the games held in Isfahan on Wednesday.

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 10--Australia were all set for victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test at Brisbane after play ended on day three with the tourists 80-2 in their second innings, BBC wrote.
Sri Lanka had been bowled out for 211 and were asked to follow on. At stumps they were still 260 runs behind after Brett Lee had taken 4-26 in the first innings, Mitchell Johnson adding his first two wickets in Tests.
Marvan Atapattu (51) and Chamara Silva (40) were the best of a poor set of scores from the Sri Lankans. Lee, the new leader of the Australian bowling attack in the absence of retired greats Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, warmed to the responsibility thrust upon him.
But after the day began with Sri Lanka on an uncertain 31-2, it was his seam-bowling colleagues Johnson and Stuart Clark who supplied the early incisions. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene poked tentatively at Clark, edging to Adam Gilchrist for the first wicket on Saturday to make it 45-3.
Left-arm seamer Johnson’s first strike in Test cricket followed 11 overs later, Thilan Samaraweera giving Gilchrist a fourth catch off a superb delivery that squared him up. A moderate stand of 54 followed between Atapattu and Silva, but it was nowhere near enough.
The positioning of Michael Clarke at short third man paid off a treat as Silva slashed Clark straight to the fielder. Sri Lanka took lunch on 124-5, and after the interval Atapattu’s 127 ball vigil was finally ended as he mis-hit a pull off Lee to square leg.
Andrew Symonds and Stuart MacGill joined the fun with a wicket apiece before Lee returned to dispose of the tail. With Australia’s bowlers having barely broken sweat it was no surprise the follow-on was enforced.
Atapattu was dismissed for the second time in the day when gloving a pull shot off Symonds to Gilchrist. And with the shadows creeping across the square, Ricky Ponting took a sharp slip catch to give Lee another wicket after Jayasuriya had blazed 39 off 49 balls.
It had been a decent cameo for a one-day match perhaps, but his innings had not aided Sri Lanka’s cause.

Ruud Gullit

CARSON, USA, Nov. 10--The Los Angeles Galaxy believe new head coach Ruud Gullit is the ideal man to resurrect their playing fortunes, despite his mediocre record as a manager.
Widely regarded as one of the most gifted players in the game’s history, Dutchman Gullit won his only trophy as a manager with Chelsea 10 years ago, according to Reuters.
“I would take in a minute the results he got at Chelsea in his first year and accept that next year as success,“ Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of the entertainment conglomerate that owns the Galaxy, told reporters on Friday.
“His problem as a coach was not results; it was probably more the burnout. He burned through both those opportunities pretty quickly.“
Gullit, who has been appointed on a three-year contract with the Galaxy, has previously coached Chelsea, Newcastle United and Feyenoord.
He guided Chelsea to the 1997 FA Cup final before being sacked by the Londoners the following year. He then took over from Kenny Dalglish as manager of Newcastle in August 1998 but resigned 12 months later after a dismal start to the season.
He took charge of Feyenoord in 2004, helping them finish fourth in the Dutch first division before resigning in May 2005.
“I think Ruud is a different guy today,“ Leiweke said after Gullit’s formal introduction as a Galaxy coach at the team’s home stadium.

LONDON, Nov. 10--Manchester United have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea in the race for 14-year-old Burnley striker John Cofie and agreed an undisclosed fee with the Clarets.
According to BBC, Burnley rejected a reported £250,000 bid from Liverpool for Cofie this week. But the German-born Ghanaian refused to return to training with the Clarets and they agreed he could leave Turf Moor.
Burnley have inserted a 25 percent sell-on clause in the deal, which also gives them first refusal on any loan deal and a future friendly match with United. It will be three years before Cofie can sign professional terms at Old Trafford and the friendly game will take place within 12 months of that.
Cofie was signed by the Clarets last summer after he was spotted at a youth tournament in Germany.
“The player was unwilling to come back to Burnley so we didn’t have a choice in keeping him here,“ Burnley operational director Brendan Flood told his club’s website.
“He was going to go to one of the clubs chasing his signature and in the end; we all felt that Manchester United was the right option. He has a good future ahead of him and hopefully we can try and keep youngsters of John’s quality at the club in future.“

MADRID, Spain, Nov. 10--Maria Sharapova made short work of Ana Ivanovic in her final round-robin match of the WTA Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, winning 6-1 6-2.
Ivanovic never got going against the Russian, who overwhelmed her opponent. Sharapova’s victory means she will meet her compatriot Anna Chakvetadze in the semi-finals, while Ivanovic plays defending champion Justine Henin, Reuters wrote.
Meanwhile, Marion Bartoli needed only eight games to beat Jelena Jankovic, who retired feeling unwell. At 4-1 down, the Serbian called the doctor then took a 10-minute break and with one game played of the second set she quit, citing breathing problems.
Both Bartoli and Jankovic were already out of contention to reach the last four.
In Friday’s third and final match, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova beat world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 6-0 in a consolation match between the two eliminated players.
Sharapova has struggled with fitness problems this season but she was pleased with her form against Ivanovic and is confident of continuing her progress.
Bartoli’s win, in her final group match, came too late to keep her in the tournament and Jankovic’s retirement means she was denied a proper victory. Bartoli lost her opening match of the Madrid event, going down 6-0 6-0 to favorite Justine Henin.