German Jewish group wants player dropped
German Jewish group wants player droppedBERLIN, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Germany's leading Jewish organisation has called for an Iranian-born player to be dropped from Germany's under-21 national soccer team for withdrawing from an upcoming match against Israel.
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Ashkan Dejagah, 21, withdrew on personal grounds from Germany's European Championships qualifier against Israel, to be played in Tel Aviv on Friday, the German Football Association (DFB) said on Monday.
But the player was quoted in Monday's edition of tabloid daily Bild as saying his decision not to play was politically motivated.
Dejagah, who plays for Bundesliga club VfB Wolfsburg, was born in Tehran, but moved to Germany with his parents. He holds both German and Iranian passports.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has refused to recognise Israel's right to exist and Iranian citizens are forbidden from travelling to Israel. Good relations with Israel are a top priority in Germany because of the Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were murdered.
On Tuesday, the Central Council of Jews in Germany condemned the DFB's decision to accept Dejagah's request and demanded that the player be sanctioned.
'It would be an affront to silently tolerate this behaviour,' Council President Charlotte Knobloch said in a statement. 'I therefore expect that the DFB will exclude the player from the German national team.'
Peter Danckert, chairman of the German parliament's sport committee, also criticised the move, calling the withdrawal 'totally unacceptable'.
DFB President Theo Zwanziger said he agreed to Dejagah's request because it was of a 'personal nature', but added: 'We will not accept that a player on the German national team withdraws from an international match on the basis of his view of the world.'
As part of their trip to Israel, the German players will visit a memorial to victims of the Holocaust. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly questioned whether the Holocaust took place.
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