TEHRAN, Feb. 5--The 2010 World Cup Group E qualification match between Iran and Syria will kick off on Wednesday in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.
According to Iran Daily’s sport desk, the match will be watched by Spaniard Javier Clemente, who has deferred the signing of his contract until early next week.
Former coach of Spanish football team has inspected Iran’s stadium facilities in the past days and is to respond to officials about the job on Sunday.
Mansour Ebrahim-Zadeh and Afshin Peyrovani are to head Iran in this game while Clemente will sit on the stands to analyze the team.
Mehdi Mahdavikia will wear the armband against Syria. Players include Andranik Teymourian, Ali Karimi and Hossein Kaebi.
Iran’s Football Federation has announced that the match is free of charge and the stadium is expected to be filled to capacity.
Iran and Syria have played 16 matches of which Iran has won nine times and lost once.

Kazem Rajabi

TEHRAN, Feb. 5--Kazem Rajabi, paralympic gold medalist, said that he is going to be the world’s strongest man, despite many obstacles which limit the advance of disabled athletes, particularly in Iran.
“I am preparing for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and want to break my own record in the prestigious event. I will bring Hossein Rezazadeh’s reign to an end in Beijing,“ he told Iran Daily on Tuesday.
Rajabi foresees an important task ahead in winning his second gold medal in the Beijing Paralympic. He added, “Without a doubt, I would be a champion in the tournament and set a new record.“
Iranian heavyweight lifter was nominated for the 2007 Laureus World Sports Awards along with world’s top six athletes, including Roger Federer and Michael Schumacher.
Rajabi said, “Nobody cares about us since we are handicapped. I am the first Iranian athlete who was invited to the Laureus ceremony but unfortunately the national media didn’t cover the news.“
Rajabi won the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games as well as three other gold medals in world championships.

LEICESTER, UK,
Feb. 5--Leicester City have announced that their Iranian defender Hossein Kaebi has left the club by mutual consent.
The 22 year-old star, who has already made over 50 appearances for the Iranian national team, arrived at the championship club in the summer, Leicester City’s website wrote.
Former coach Martin Allen signed Kaebi, beating a host of other clubs to his signature but Kaebi found time in the starting eleven hard to come by.
Kaebi made just three appearances for the East Midlands club with only one start.
Reports suggest that he could be on his way to join up with former club and Iranian league leaders Persepolis.

TEHRAN, Feb. 5--Fourteen Iranian wrestlers will take part in an international freestyle wrestling tournament in memory of Yashar Doghu, which is to start in Turkey on February 9.
According to Mehr News Agency, the wrestlers will participate in seven categories as follows:
Taqi Dadashi, Abbas Dabbaqi (55 kg)
Mohsen Aqajani, Saeed Ahmadi (60 kg)
Hamid Mohammad-Nejad, Saeed Dadashpour (66 kg)
Meisam Mostafa-Jokar, Sadeq Goudarzi (74 kg)
Hamed Tatari, Jamel Mirzaei (84 kg)
Amir Moradi-Ganji, Saeed Amiri (96 kg)
Mohammad Reza Azar-Shakib, Fardin Masoumi (120 kg)
The team will be headed by Mahmoud Moezzipour as head coach as well as coaches Ali Haqverdi and Mohammad Talaei.
The tournament will last till February 11.

LONDON, Feb. 5--British cycling duo Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish will not be racing in this year’s Giro d’Italia.
Wiggins and Cavendish, who had planned to miss the Tour de France, hoped to use the three-week event to form part of their Beijing Olympic preparations, BBC wrote.
But the tour’s organizers have excluded the pair’s High Road team from this year’s event because the team do not meet the strict selection criteria.
The Astana team has also been refused entry to the race which is held in May.
Cavendish begins his road racing season on Sunday 17 February when he competes in the eight-stage Tour of California.

Sania Mirza

NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 5--Indian tennis star Sania Mirza’s decision not to play in home tournaments this year because of off-court rows has left fans and officials shell-shocked, according to AFP.
Mirza opted out of India’s richest tennis event, the 600,000-dollar WTA Bangalore Open from March 3-9, telling reporters she was finding it tough to deal with the controversies.
The 21-year-old, a Muslim, has been criticised in the past by Islamist groups for wearing short skirts on court, and recently was taken to court after media photographs showed her bare feet resting near the Indian flag.
Mirza, Asia’s highest-ranked player at number 29, revealed before last month’s Australian Open she had considered quitting the game because of the controversies.
Former Davis Cup player Vishal Uppal said he was surprised at Mirza’s reason to avoid the Bangalore Open.
Mirza is managed by doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi’s company Globosport, which runs the rival WTA Sunfest Open in Kolkata in September.
Mirza had told reporters on Monday that she had been ’advised by my manager not to play because a lot has been happening in the past few months’.
“Every time I have played in India, there has been some kind of problem. So we just thought it was better not to play this time,“ she said.
“It is not an extreme reaction. The controversies have been going on for a long time. It is not easy to deal with such stuff.
With Mirza opting out, the focus at the Bangalore Open will be on Venus and Serena Williams, who are due to make their first appearance on Indian soil.

SOFIA, Bulgaria, Feb. 5--Bulgaria’s European 400 meters women’s champion Vanja Stambolova and high jump silver medalist Venelina Veneva will miss the Beijing Olympics after failing to get a two-year doping ban overturned.
Both athletes tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone or its precursors in Budapest in January 2007.
Veneva also provided a further positive sample from an IAAF out-of-competition doping control last February in Sofia.
Federation president Dobri Karamarinov told Reuters the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had decided to uphold the provisional ban imposed by the Bulgarian federation last April.
“Yes, the two-year ban is a fact,“ Karamarinov said. “We did our very best to help our athletes proving their innocence but the court’s decision is categorical and we accept it.“

LONDON, Feb. 5--Sprinter Dwain Chambers will be allowed to compete at the world indoor trials and national championships in Sheffield this weekend.
UKA chiefs will reluctantly let the 29-year-old run after admitting they do not have “sufficiently strong legal grounds“ to stop him competing, BBC said.
Chambers’ legal team threatened to take action if he was not allowed to run.
UKA wanted to prevent him running as he has not undergone a drugs test since November 2006.
“To maintain the public’s full confidence in our athletes and in the sport in general we want to ensure beyond all doubt that all athletes wishing to compete under the Union flag are drug-free,“ said UKA chief executive Niels de Vos.
“Our view is that all established athletes must participate in the out-of-competition testing program for a continuous 12 months prior to competing for GB, Dwain is not in that position.
“However, we recognize that we do not have sufficiently strong legal grounds to refuse him an invitation given our published invitation policy.
“Reluctantly therefore, Dwain Chambers has been informed he is permitted to participate.“
Chambers won the 60m at Sunday’s Birmingham Games in 6.60 seconds to easily meet the qualifying standard.
However, he will almost certainly have to win on Sunday to guarantee a place in the World Indoor Championships in Valencia from 7-9 March.

TAMALE, Ghana,
Feb. 5--Stephane Mbia scored twice as Cameroon edged Tunisia 3-2 after extra time in an African Nations Cup quarterfinal thriller here on Monday.
Dropped following a 4-2 loss to Egypt in their first group match, Mbia made the most of his second chance to open the scoring in the first half and snatch the winner two minutes into extra time.
According to AFP, Cameroon now tackle hosts Ghana on Thursday in an Accra clash of countries who have won the biennial tournament four times each while Ivory Coast meet title holders Egypt in Kumasi later that day in a repeat of the 2006 final.
Tunisia coach Roger Lemerre took his rotation policy to a new level by making seven changes from the team that held Angola goalless to top their group and remain in this northern town for one more game.
Among those recalled was veteran Brazil-born striker Francileudo dos Santos, the leading all-time Tunisia scorer with 21 goals, with teenage wonder boy Amine Chermiti relegated to the bench. Cameroon coach Otto Pfister was also in mood for change with three new faces from the team that put three goals past Sudan without reply here, including the elevation of striker Mohamadou Idrissou ahead of Joseph-Desire Job.
Tradition slightly favored the ’Indomitable Lions’ as they drew with the ’Carthage Eagles’ in 1982 and triumphed 3-0 in a semi-final eight years ago with Rigobert Song, Geremi Njitap and Samuel Eto’o survivors of that side.