February 21, 2012
Iranian soccer club won’t play Serbian team with Israeli coach
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Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's manager Harry Redknapp, right, talks to former Chelsea manager Avram Grant outside the club's training ground in Chigwell on Feb. 10. Photo by REUTERS/Eddie Keogh
An Iranian soccer team canceled a game against a Serbian club because its coach is Israeli.
Avram Grant, who last month was named manager of the Partizan Belgrade soccer club, said in a statement on the team’s website that he had been told “unofficially” that Friday’s match against Sepahan Isfahan in Turkey had been canceled because he was Israeli, ESPN reported. Grant called the decision “shameful.”
The team reportedly had to switch its winter training camp from Dubai to Antalya, Turkey, because Grant is Israeli.
Grant was formerly the manager for British soccer clubs Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham United.
