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Sunday, January 03, 2010

Iranian soccer official resigns after email gaffe

As I previously mentioned, Iran's football federation accidentally sent New Year's greetings to Israel, causing the author to panic when he found out ("This is a mistake, this is a mistake!")

Well, the horrendous crime of wishing a Happy New Year to Israelis is being appropriately handled:
A top official in the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) was forced to resign after an email was accidentally sent to the Israeli Football Association wishing them a Happy New Year, Iranian press said on Sunday.

The official in question is the IFF's director of foreign relations, Mohammad-Mansour Azimzadeh, who was shamed after the email was sent on his behalf to Israeli officials, prompting the federation's president, Ali Kafashian, to express "deep remorse."

"The Iranian Football Federation has said that messages of congratulations are sent each year to all members of FIFA except the Zionist regime, which is why it was removed from the list of addresses for New Year messages," an IFF statement published by the Fars news agency said.

The email was sent on Friday, New Years Day, and prompted Israel to respond with a letter saying: "We thank you for you Happy New Year greeting and wish all of the good people in Iran a happy new year" with a wink added in the email.
For some strange reason, I have not heard about any Israelis being punished for responding to Iran with their own New Year's greetings.