UK repeats anti-Iran visa scenario

FILA has formally announced Amir Reza Khadem as one of the three candidates for membership in the 15-member FILA Bureau who will be elected in the August 3 FILA Congress in London.

However, British officials refused to grant him visa or special Olympic ID cards, which serve as visas for sports officials during the Games.

Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran Bahram Afsharzadeh said they have now decided to dispatch the acting head of Iran’s Wrestling Federation Hojjatollah Khatib to the FILA Congress where participants should paradoxically vote on Khadem.

“We sent Khadem to [the Turkish capital of] Ankara to get a visa, but the British embassy there did not issue a visa for him and that’s why Khatib himself will attend the FILA Congress in London,” Afsharzadeh said.

This comes as London Olympics officials had earlier denied an Olympic ID card to the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Shooting Sports Federation (IRISSF) Mahdi Hashemi for the 2012 Games, despite an obligation to provide visas to members of the Olympic family.

Hashemi is also a member of the executive board of Iran’s National Olympic Committee which makes him eligible for an ID card even regardless of his IRISSF top post.

AMR/PKH/HE

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