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AFP - Brazil, Argentina or Holland and not Germany are the teams best placed to scoop the World Cup in Germany next year, Iran's Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic told AFP.

But he also sees the Iranian team, among the first to qualify for a slot in Germany, as a major "spoiling" force who could give the big sides a run for their money.

"I think the favourites will be Brazil, Argentina, and Holland," Ivankovic told AFP in Tehran. "I do not believe in Germany. Although they have a good team, it is not a team to win the cup - they have a young team."

"If you want to win the cup you need stars, and the Germans do not have any stars except Ballack and Kahn," he said referring to Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and playmaker Michael Ballack.

"We were better than them," Ivankovic insisted of Iran's friendly game against Germany in October 2004, even though the Germans won 2-0.

Since then, key Iranian players have been gaining crucial experience in the Bundesliga - Ali Karimi in Bayern Munich, Mehdi Mahdavikia in Hamburg, and Vahid Hashemian in Hanover.

Iran erupted into mass festivities in July after earning a place in Germany. Iran has only ever played in the World Cup finals in 1978 and 1998.

"I believe we have a very good team which can upset the plans of the others, and it will progress even more as we get near to the World Cup," said 51-year-old Ivankovich, Iran's coach since 2002.

He acknowledged the football-crazy Islamic republic's side still needed more organisation - something he hopes to address with a hectic string of fixtures in the run-up to Germany 2006.

"I have opened up the team to the young. About fifteen players are between 21 and 25, and only two players are more than 30 years-old," he said, adding that veteran 36-year-old captain Ali Daei was still considered "the best for his job".

"Iranian players are not only quality players, but they are also full of enthusiasm," he says of his side.

"We will face South Korea and Thailand in October and we will try to play Brazil and Portugal, we are in discussions with Serbia and Croatia," he said of plans for friendlies before Iran takes up residence in Friedrichshafen.

"We would like very much to play against France, and if it happens in Tehran, it would be spectacular," he said.

For Ivankovich, the ideal result will be a World Cup final clash between Iran and his native Croatia - "with a victory of Croatia, unmerited, but a victory nevertheless".

After nearly five years working in Iran and often facing a hostile press, Ivankovich acknowledged that his "bags are always packed and ready" at his north Tehran apartment.

But he adds: "I never had any problems. When I'm in Europe, I try to explain the things here, I tell people that everything is normal here."

Iranian football, he says, will be "at a true international level in five to ten years time, if the country invests in the infrastructure."

"You know how many clubs there are in the whole of Iran? Just 150. That's fewer than in Paris."

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