Iran appealing at CAS to prevent Saeid Mollaei to fight at Olympics

According to Israelian website Ynet is the Iranian Judo Association and The Iran Olympic Committee are appealing to the International Arbitration Tribunal to prevent Saeid Mollaei to fight for Mongolia. The president of the IJF, Marius Vizer was involved in a discussion on the subject last week on the occasion of the Grand Prix in Tel Aviv.

Mollaei was invited to the Grand Prix in Tel Aviv but in his new country Mongolia there were national championships. Mollaei though was present at the German Championships to watch in the country that gave him a refugee status went he flew after the World Championships.

The Iranian Olympic Committee and the Iranian Judo Association recently approached CAS (the Arbitration Tribunal for Sports) to launch a proceeding that would prevent Said Mollaei from representing Mongolia and require him to compete in his native uniform before the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. According to the Iranians, Mollaei did not receive a release from them to represent another country after defecting to Germany at the end of the Tokyo World Championships last year when he stopped representing Iran and accepted a refugee status.

 Just days before the China Masters Competition at the end of last year, Mollaei visited Mongolia, the former Judo Association president Khaltmaagiin Battulga, who gave him a passport so that he could register and compete under the flag of his new country. For this move, the athlete has to get permission from the source country. This did not happen this time when the judoka went directly to represent Mongolia without receiving the green light from the Iranians.

Following the urgency of the application for a hearing on the issue, IJF President Marius Vizer decided not to witness the Grand Prix competition in Tel Aviv. He preferred to prepare well for the CAS hearing to which he was invited to give evidence. The hearing took place last week and the parties are now looking forward to the decision.

Vizer did his utmost to help Mollaei in the matter and accompanied him throughout, from defending him from his country's delegation at the World Championships to the situation where he was required to fly to Germany.

The judo world is looking forward to a meeting between Saeid Mollaei and Israelian World Champion Sagi Muki but will have to wait a little while for this confrontation between, meanwhile, judo friends.

Read the full article of YNet.