DUSHANBE, June 7, Asia-Plus – Tajik soccer fans will be able to watch the Football World Cup 2006 that will open in Germany on June 9, Mr. Asadullo Rahmonov, Chairman of Tajikistan’s Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting, said.

“For this, we have conducted negotiations with our colleagues from Iran and Kazakhstan, and we have reached an agreement with the Iranian side on broadcasting the World Cup 2006 in Tajikistan,” said Asadullo Rahmonov, “With aid of Iran, our television will be able to produce a signal feed practically for all viewers in the country; some 97 percent of the country’s population will be able to watch the championship.”   Head of the Tajik Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting has noted that it will be live broadcast.   

In the meantime, Kazakhstan’s “Eurasia+ORT”, which owns an exclusive right of broadcasting the World Cup 2006 in the Central Asian region notes that Iran’s company has the right to broadcast the championship only on the territory of Iran.   “If the Iranian side provides Tajikistan with live broadcast of the World Cup “Eurasia+ORT” will use its right to impose penalty sanctions on the Iranian company, because only “Eurasia+ORT” has a license for broadcasting the World Cup in the Central Asian region, including Tajikistan,” the Asia-Plus interlocutor said.      

Meanwhile, according to the source being closed to the Iranian nation TV company, “the Iranian side is ready to broadcast the football matches over Tajikistan, but no concrete decision has been made so far because the Tajik side is delaying solution of this issue.”   The source also does not rule out that the reason for delaying the solution of the issue is the fact that the Iranian side does not have the right to provide Tajikistan with live broadcast of the World Cup.   “The issue may possibly be resolved on Thursday,” the source added.