ARAK, Markazi,
Feb. 18--Head of Iranian Basketball Federation has said that the country is the best in Asia.
Mahmoud Mashhoon, who was speaking in a session at Markazi province’s Basketball Association, further said, “Iranian basketball players have so far gained five gold medals in Asian championships and they even rank above China.“
He added that what is important at the time is to maintain the championship title and this calls for hard work.
Referring to the status of basketball in Markazi province, he said, “A number of provincial basketball players are members of the national team and can help upgrade Iran’s basketball status.“
Mashhoon also announced the federation’s readiness to hold training camps, coach and umpire training courses in the province, IRNA wrote.
Meanwhile, Alireza Rabiei was appointed head of Markazi Basketball Association for four years in the session.

Hossein Rezazadeh

Hossein Askari

Ali Daei

Hadi Saei

Laleh Keshavarz

TEHRAN, Feb. 18--Iranian sport legends will be honored at the National Sport Consensus Congress in Daneshjou Cultural Center on Tuesday.
The ten sport legends will be appreciated at a ceremony attended by Physical Education Organization and National Olympic Committee officials, former athletes and artists, Mehr News Agency wrote.
At the ceremony, tribute will be paid to Ali Daei (world’s top football scorer),ÊVahid Shamsaei (world’s top futsal scorer), Hadi Saei (Iran’s best medal winner), Hossein Rezazadeh (world’s most powerful man), Hossein Askari (Iranian and Asian cyclist champion), Abdollah Movahhed (former wrestling champion), Teimour Ghiasi(former athletic champion), Hamid Soorian (Greco-Roman wrestler), Hossein Fazeli (former athletic champion) and Laleh Keshavarz (Everest conqueror).Ê
The event will also honor superior personalities in sports and arts including Mehdi Fakhimzadeh, Jamshid Hashem-Pour, Alireza Khamseh, Morteza Ahmadi, Parviz Parastu’ei, Saeid Rad and Sirous Dadashzadeh.

TEHRAN, Feb. 18--Iranian gymnasts are to take part in a training camp from March 6 to 11 at the National Olympic and Paralympics Academy in Tehran.
A total of 30 gymnasts between 10 and 15 years old will participate in the camp, IRNA wrote.
The invitees will train under the supervision of two North Korean coaches.
A head coach will be selected from among the ten Korean coaches who recently arrived in Iran.
Hossein Taherkhani and Hassan Mirqa’emi will assist the Korean head coach.

Javier Clemente

TEHRAN, Feb. 18--Prospective national coach Javier Clemente is expected to set up a home in Iran after the Islamic State’s soccer federation rejected his suggestion that he would commute from his native Spain ahead of matches.
“I will live in Iran and have no problems about it,“ the former Spain and Serbia coach was quoted as saying in a report published in Iranian daily Kayhan International on Monday, Reuters wrote.
“But I will go back to Bilbao in Spain when the team does not need me,“ he said in the report attributed to Press TV satellite station.
Last week, Clemente signed a contract to take charge of the three-time Asian Cup winners for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
However. soccer federation head Ali Kafashian said Iran did not want a ’remote control coach’ after Clemente told a Spanish daily he would continue to live in the Basque Country and only travel to the Islamic State to prepare for matches.
Kafashian last week said the Iranian side had yet to sign the contract and it had added a paragraph under which Clemente, 57, could travel to Spain twice a year.
Clemente was sacked by Serbia in December after failing to steer the team to this year’s European Championship finals which are being co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland.
He faces the enormous task of transforming the Iranian team into a respectable force and living up to fans’ expectations.
Iran got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to a disappointing start when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Syria. Iran and Syria contest the all-Middle East Group Five with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Clemente managed Spain from 1992-98 and has coached several clubs, including Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

TEHRAN, Feb. 18--FIFAÊ Disciplinary Committee will make a decision about Persepolis by the end of the week.
Following Iran’s Football Federation’s appeal to FIFA to waiver Persepolis’ six points deduction fine, the committee will announce its verdict after revising the documents. Persepolis has paid 130,000 euro to the company which transferred Nigerian player Rafael to the team and sent the committee its documents, Mehr News Agency wrote.
FIFA had earlier announced it will deduct six points from the team’s overall scores because of delay in payment of the company’s debt.
Persepolis ranks first in Iran’s Professional League with 43 points.

DAYTONA BEACH, USA, Feb. 18--One down, one to go for The Captain. Roger Penske picked up his elusive Daytona 500 victory, a $1 million bonus and a new challenge--pairing the race he just conquered with the one that means the most to him.
Ryan Newman gave Penske his first Daytona 500 victory in 24 years of trying, a frustrating span for a car owner accustomed to dominating big events: He’s won the Indianapolis 500 a record 14 times.
Now he wants one more. Matching victories in two of motorsports’ most sought after bounties.
Penske earned his win in a thriller, with Newman ending an 81-race winless streak by teaming up with Kurt Busch for a last-lap pass that handed Tony Stewart yet another Daytona defeat. The Penske cars ganged up on the two-time champion, who made a strategic error that prevented him from holding off the charge, according to AP.
It gave Penske the win in the 50th running of the Daytona 500, and when the car owner finally made it to storied Victory Lane, he was met by Rick Hendrick, NASCAR’s most powerful owner.
The Penske cars were quiet for 199 of the 200 laps, letting Joe Gibbs Racing stars Stewart and Kyle Busch race each other in a battle of Toyotas.
With one lap to go, it appeared Stewart finally would get his first Daytona 500 win in his 10th try.
Running out front in the high line, he held off the two Penske cars as they circled the famed speedway. But as the Penske teammates closed in on him, Stewart didn’t feel safe running alone without any allies.
At the last second, he dropped low on the track to line up in front of Kyle Busch. The JGR teams had talked all week about the importance of teamwork, and Stewart thought he’d need Busch to make it to the checkered flag.

MILAN, Italy, Feb. 18--European champions AC Milan may have to field their third goalkeeper as they visit Arsenal in mid-week for a final-16 match of the Champions League.
Australian Zeljko Kalac, 35, Monday was hoping to recover after hurting a finger in a training session, while Brazilian Nelson Dida, 34, was already unavailable due to a backache, reported DPA.
Kalac, who has lately replaced Dida as first custodian, suffered the dislocation of the second finger in his right hand and will have to rely on painkillers if fielded Wednesday in London.
A sharp back pain blocked Dida during the break of a Serie A league game that Milan Saturday drew 0-0 at Parma.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti is thus to take Valerio Fiori to London, either as a reserve or as starting goalkeeper. Fiori, 38, has played only two official games since arriving at Milan in 1999.

Sepp Blatter

MADRID, Spain,
Feb. 18--Spain will be barred from competing in international competitions if their government continues to pressure the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to hold an early election, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said.
“If the Spanish government, through their Sports Council (CSD), continue to interfere in football affairs they will have to recognize that their clubs and national team will be excluded from international tournaments,“ Blatter was quoted as saying by Reuters on Monday.
“It would be tough, but it would only take six hours to call a FIFA emergency committee meeting to hear and decide upon Spain’s exclusion.
“Spain would not be able to play at Euro 2008, and their clubs wouldn’t continue in the Champions League or UEFA Cup.“
Blatter’s backing for RFEF president Angel Maria Villar comes after the CSD called for all sporting federations not involved in the Olympic Games to hold elections before Beijing 2008, which takes place in August.
“It (government intervention in football affairs) is not a new problem for FIFA,“ he added.
“It first occurred in Portugal where a letter from us was sufficient to change the law governing sport.
“In Greece, we had to suspend their federation indefinitely and everything was sorted out in 48 hours.
“We don’t have a crisis situation at present. The RFEF have called a general assembly to ratify FIFA’s new electoral code and to call an election at the end of the year. We have a small fire but we don’t need the firefighters yet. FIFA is like the United Nations but has more members and is more powerful,“ he concluded.

HAMBURG, Germany, Feb. 18--James Blake and Andy Murray returned into the top 10 of the men’s tennis rankings issued on Monday by the ATP, with Roger Federer the familiar world number one.
The Swiss Federer leads the way with 6,630 points from Spain’s Rafael Nadal (5,980) and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia (5,165).
United States player Blake climbed from 12 to nine after making the Delray Beach final and the Briton Murray moved from 11 to 10 after winning the Marseille crown on Sunday, reported DPA.
ATP top 10 as of February 18 (previous ranking in parenthesis): 1. (1) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 6,630; 2. (2) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 5,980; 3. (3) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 5,165; 4. (4) Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, 2,725; 5. (5) David Ferrer, Spain, 2,715; 6. (6) Andy Roddick, United States, 2,120; 7. (7) Richard Gasquet, France, 1,885; 8. (8) Mikhail Youzhny, Russia, 1,845; 9. (12) James Blake, United States, 1,710; 10. (11) Andy Murray, Britain, 1,710.

LONDON, Feb. 18--Dwain Chambers will not be able to compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing after he missed the deadline to appeal against his lifetime suspension.
The British Olympic Association banned the sprinter from competing at the Games after he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.
Chambers had until Friday, 15 February to lodge an appeal to overturn his ban.
But a spokeswoman for the BOA told BBC Sport the organization has not received any correspondence from Chambers.
However, she stressed Chambers is still free to appeal against his permanent ban should he wish to attempt to challenge the BOA’s ruling, which excludes any athletes who have failed drugs tests from competing in the Olympics.
“If they (athletes) wanted to be certain that their appeal has gone through the whole system, then they needed to launch an appeal by the (15 February) deadline,“ she told BBC Sport. “However, it’s not necessarily the only opportunity - he (Chambers) can appeal at any given time.“
The 29-year-old has been controversially included in Great Britain’s squad to run in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia next month, despite UK Athletics’ reluctance to select him.