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Iran blocks Nekounam's move to Sharjah over name dispute
Iran has barred national team captain Javad Nekounam from joining Sharjah, while Ajman’s Iranian star Mohammad Reza Khalatbari may be forced to return to his homeland due to a dispute over the UAE’s renamed football league.
Nekounam, 32, who captained Iran in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, visited the UAE earlier in the week to finalise a deal with newly-promoted club Sharjah.
But the move - reportedly worth more than two million dollars - has been blocked by Iranian authorities, Iran’s football federation chief Ali Kafashian said, quoted by Fars news agency.
“We had to stop him from joining the Emirati league,” Kafashian said, adding that Nekounam would be compensated with an unspecified amount which “we will ask the president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) to allocate.”
He did not elaborate why Nekounam had been “denied permission” to join Sharjah, but Iranian media said the decision was taken to stop the veteran international from playing in the UAE’s newly-renamed ‘Arabian Gulf League’, a rebranding which has stirred tensions.
Historically sensitive towards territorial issues, Iran insists on calling the body of water the “Persian Gulf” and argues that historical evidence, including ancient maps, show it has always been “Persian” and part of its territory.
The Islamic republic, whose own football federation has named a “Persian Gulf Cup”, staunchly defends that stance and observes a “National Day of the Persian Gulf” each year on April 30.
The Arab countries of the oil-rich region meanwhile insist on the term “Arabian Gulf” or simply “the Gulf.”
Nekounam’s proposed move to Sharjah is not the only deal to have been affected, with Kafashian quoted as saying “eight or nine other players" have also been banned from joining UAE clubs and would be compensated.
While Nekounam and an apparent host of other players have had their moves blocked, Khalatbari has already completed a switch to Ajman prior to the change in the league’s name.
However, the forward’s time at the Etisalat Cup champions could be short-lived, with Kafashian revealing how efforts were underway to find a legal settlement to terminate the contract.
The dispute over the Gulf’s name is not a new development in a region where Shiite powerhouse Iran and its Sunni rival Saudi Arabia have long vied for supremacy.
In May 2012, Iran criticised Internet giant Google for leaving the waterway nameless on its online map services, which now refer to the waterway as the 'Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).'
And in 2010, Iran warned that airlines using the term “Arabian Gulf” on in-flight monitors would be barred from its airspace.
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