The International Judo Federation on Thursday partially upheld an initial ban against Iranian participation in sanctioned events over its refusal to allow its athletes to compete against Israeli opponents.
Iran was already under indefinite suspension since September 18, 2019 but the move that was overturned in March by the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IJF reinstated the punishment as a retroactive four-year ban and it will end on September 17, 2023.
The CAS overturned the permanent suspension and sent the matter back to the IJF Disciplinary Commission. In a release to the media it stated that it had “determined that the Islamic Republic of Iran Judo Federation committed severe violations of the IJF rules and that sanctions compliant with the IJF regulations should be imposed on it.
“However, the CAS Panel concluded that the kind of sanction (unlimited suspension) imposed … had no legal basis in the IJF regulations. Accordingly, the Panel partially upheld the appeal and annulled the decision taken by the IJF Disciplinary Commission on 22 October 2019,” the court said.
In describing the severity of Iran’s actions, it quoted from the CAS ruling, which explained that Iranian athletes were “required to lose before even getting to the point where he had to face an Israeli athlete in an attempt to disguise the underlying true motive from the IJF and the public.”
The IJF said it “continues to defend the fundamental human values and rights of all its members, with a special emphasis on the rights of athletes and reiterates its commitment to fight against any form of discrimination in the sport of judo.”
The issue was first brought to light in 2019 by Iranian judo champion Saeid Mollaei, who has since fled Iran and now represents Mongolia. Mollaei competed in the Tel Aviv Grand Slam event held in February.