Iran team cancels over Israeli coach

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Partizan Belgrade coach Avram Grant says Iranian soccer club Sepahan has canceled its friendly game in Turkey because he is an Israeli.

The match was scheduled to be played Friday in Antalya, where the defending Serbian champions are preparing for the rest of the domestic season.

Grant, a former Chelsea coach who took over at Partizan last month, says the decision by the Iranian club is “shameful.”

He says “I never mixed politics with sports. I had worked with many (Muslims) while I was in England, and I made friends with many of them.”

Partizan says it had to switch its usual winter preparations from Dubai to Antalya because of Grant’s Israeli citizenship.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.