Soccer sanctions (Football sanctions)

This is an older story, but an interesting one. FIFA has resisted calls for soccer sanctions on Iran. The idea dates back to at least 1994, when Yugoslavia was prevented from the FIFA World Cup. Here's the story:

FRANKFURT, Germany - Soccer‘s governing body will allow Iran to play in next year‘s World Cup despite calls from German politicians for the Islamic nation to be banned because the country‘s president denies the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad‘s comments were denounced in Germany, which is sensitive to its Nazi past. Hitler‘s Nazi regime was responsible for the deaths of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

"We‘re not going to enter into any political declarations," Blatter told The Associated Press on Friday in Tokyo, where he‘s attending the Club World Championship.