Ahmadinejad: Protests don't matter

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed street protests against his surprise landslide re-election in a news conference Sunday marking his victory.

"It doesn't matter," he said of the protesters and complaints from his defeated rivals. "There are contenders, they had expectations and they didn't win."

"In the end I don't think we'll have any serious challenges. Sentiments are high and sometimes they do some stuff on the streets, but in the end we had 40 million people participating and what is happening on the streets is like a football match."

"Some people are sentimental and become excited," he added. "As I said I compared it to a soccer match. Their team has not won in the match."

Ahmadinejad said the protests showed that Iran was a free country.

"Freedom is absolute in this country because they are speaking freely," he said.