IRAN should be kicked out of the World Cup as punishment for defying a ban on nuclear activities, it was claimed yesterday.

The call came as the tense war of words between Iran and the West over the stand-off escalated dramatically.

US Secretary of State Con-doleezza Rice said military action had not been ruled out.

And Iran's hardline regime raised the stakes and threatened to halt snap inspections of their nuclear sites by the United Nations.

The Foreign Office yesterday came under pressure from a senior Tory to demand that the football-mad country are thrown out of the tournament in Germany.

Former shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said: "What is happening in Iran is a very dangerous situation, not just in terms of a threat to international peace and security but also to the whole stability of the Middle East.

 

"Although I have always supported a reference to the Security Council, that could rumble on for some time.

"An exclusion from the World Cup would give a very, very clear signal to Iran that the international community will not accept what they are doing."

Ancram said the football ban would hit ordinary Iranians but would help put pressure on firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He said: "It may be unpleasant but you can give a hard signal, which isn't going to hurt people as such.

"But it is going to at least give a chance of registering in the minds of the Iranian people that what their president is doing is unacceptable to the international community."

Some German politicians and political commentators also want Iran blackballed from the World Cup for breaching the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

But the sport's governing body FIFA said they would not expel Iran from the finals, which will be staged from June 9 to July 9.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was "not certain" a ban would help and said he had always taken a "slightly different view" about sporting sanctions.

He had resisted them being imposed on Zimbabwe because they would have "punished ordinary Zimbabweans for the sins of a dictator".

Condoleezza Rice was asked if the US ruled out using force, and she replied: "The president of the United States never takes any of his options off the table."

Iran threatened to block snap UN inspections of nuclear facilities if they were referred to the UN.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Tehran would "be obliged to end all voluntary measures" if reported to the Security Council.

The crisis intensified this week after Iran removed seals at three nuclear facilities, including a uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz, following a two-year freeze.

They insist they want only to develop nuclear energy but there are fears Iran will seek atomic weapons.

Officials from the UK, US, Germany, France, China and Russia will hold urgent talks in London next week to trigger a meeting of the IAEA nuclear watchdog.

That will pave the way for Iran to be referred to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

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Could ban the US and England too for similarly defying the UN and invading Iraq.

no, at least usa should not be banned to play basketball.

No, these international sporting events are a place to showcase athletic prowess, not punish athletes for the actions of their leaders.

So what's your opinion on the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic games held in Moscow?

It happened in 1982 when Britain and Argentina were at war in the Falklands.

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Argentina had all qualified, both governments knew it would be suicide to voluntarily withdraw. So the possibility of the first international game of football between two countries at war since 1916 was a real possibility for a while. However Northern Ireland, England and Argentina went out in seperate quarter finals and...............Scotland.....

I know, I wanted to edit my poll but I cant. Can the mods fix it by like combining the two choices together. "No" and "football is not politics".

thank you.

Thankfully FIFA is not in their pocket.

Of course Iran should not be banned and I doubt your information is correct, no one seriously thought Iran should be banned so do not spread this. 

Why should America be banned? This makes no sense.

I find it wrong that the UK doesn't have ONE team. The kingdom, because that's what it is, should not be allowed to get 4 teams in the qualification rounds: England, Scottland, Wales and NI. They should just form one UK "Dream Team" (imagine Duff, Becks, Giggs, Given, Gerrard, Terry... in the same team) and give some more slots to the african nations (only 5 teams out of around 50 fifa members)...

Cheers.

 I see no reason why the Iranian football squad and staff should be punished in a competition they have earned a place in just to put pressure on Ahmadinejad.