From left to right: President of FIFA, Mr. Joseph Sepp Blatter and Vice-President and Head of Department of Environment, Ms. Masoumeh Ebtekar at a meeting held in Tehran. Photo credit: Department of Environment

Last week, President of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Joseph Sepp Blatter wrapped up a two-day visit to Islamic Republic of Iran.

During one of his meetings, Mr. Blatter promised to support a plan to fight extinction of Iranian Cheetah which will also be the national symbol of the Iranian football team’s jersey in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

While in Iran, he met with government officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani where according to Tehran Times the future of Iranian football and its ability to host the Asian Cup in 2019 was discussed. “Today, football is not only a sport, but the shining players are countries’ peace ambassadors to football fields,” President Rouhani said.

In his remarks about visiting Iran, Mr. Blatter stated “The Iranian Football Federation invited me two years ago, but I couldn’t come to Iran, and I also postponed the visit last year. Now it’s a good time to visit Iran because it’s the same time to congratulate them for qualifying to the World Cup 2014. There is also a change in Iran, and that’s why I’m also honored to meet President Rouhani and to speak with him about the future of the country and the future of football because Iran is a big country and has big football.”