The chairman of World Judo Federation, Marius Vizer, announced that Saeid Mollaei, the world champion, has asked for help from this federation in Germany in order to seek asylum.

Vizer told Asahi Shimbun: “Mollaei was pressured to lose his semifinal match so that he wouldn’t fight against the Israeli opponent.”

“Mollaei’s family in Iran were also pressured by the regime in order to force him to refuse to fight the Israeli opponent,” Vizer continued.

The chairman of the World Judo Federation added: “Mollaei would like to participate in the Olympics on the refugee team.”

The head coach of the Israeli national judo team also said: Saeid Mollaei was determined to participate in Tokyo championship until the end to receive his Olympics qualification. But this meant he would have to fight an opponent from Israel. So the security forces went to his house and pressured his family and forced Mollaei to lose to the Belgian opponent in semifinals.”

It is forbidden for Iranian athletes to play and fight against Israeli athletes since the Islamic Republic officials in Iran have not recognized Israel as a country since 1979.

In the past, Iranian athletes would simply refuse to fight against Israeli opponents, but since world sports federations have forbidden such practices, now Iranian athletes are forced to lose in the match before the upcoming match with the Israeli opponents.

In 2017, Alireza Karimi, the Iranian wrestler was famously forced to lose to the Russian wrestler before facing the Israeli opponent, with his coach screaming on the sideline: “Alireza you must lose.”

The former president of Iran’s Wrestling Federation, a former world champion, resigned in protest to such practices.

However, the chairman of Iran’s Olympics committee and President Rouhani’s former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance emphasized that: “Refusing to fight Israeli athletes is a core value of our revolution.”