In Somalia, the Islamic rulers have decreed that no sports team or individual athlete can leave the country without a letter of permission from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). This also applies to the national football team that was told by clerics to “defeat Catholic Ethiopia” or not return home from a tournament for East and Central African Football Associations.

In Somalia, the national Olympic Committee and the country’s new Islamic rulers are working on a framework for the practice of sport in the country. The Islamic Courts Union decreed in June that sport is a “satanic act” but recently one leading sheik said that the Islamists are not totally against sport. Instead they want to encourage sports of Islam.

A cartoon of Iranian soccer players dressed as suicide bombers has caused friction between the Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin and Iran. The cartoon was published on 10 February as a comment on preparations for the football World Cup but it has angered Iranians to such a degree that the Iranian embassy in Germany has demanded a written apology and the cartoonist has gone into hiding after receiving several death threats.