German fascists plan to exploit Iran games

A neo-Nazi group in Germany has announced plans to attach themselves to Iran during the World Cup to further its dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda. The NPD party, a right-wing extremist group, intends to march around the east German city of Leipzig on June 21st, when Iran take on Angola in group D.

The move is the latest example of extremist groups attempting to take advantage of the competition to promote their ideologies.

The Portuguese right-wing group Frente Nacional is intending to demonstrate during the match between Angola and Portugal in Cologne on June 11th, and the NPD will also target Poland's games.

The growing concerns of anti-fascist campaigners about the World Cup has prompted the pressure group Football Against Racism in Europe to contact the tournament's organising committee to warn of the threat.

The movement will place monitors at World Cup matches with a brief to seek out and report far-right banners and chants.

The NPD professes admiration for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has referred to the Holocaust as "a myth" and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schauble, has, however, confirmed that German and Iranian diplomats are discussing the possibility of Ahmadinejad - who showed his support for the national team last month by turning up at a training camp in a tracksuit before their friendly against Costa Rica - coming to the World Cup.

Germany's Jewish Council pointed out Ahmadinejad could be arrested under German law.

"There is no doubt that the Iranian president's public utterances denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel infringes paragraph 130 of Germany's statute book," said Stephan Kramer, the council's secretary general.

The news comes as Germany's football federation (DFB) prepares to throw open its archives in an attempt to come to terms with its enthusiastic support of the Nazis during the Hitler era, after covering it up for six decades.

"In a few weeks we'll be welcoming the world to Germany and we want to face up to our history," said the DFB co-president Theo Zwanziger.