Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei: ‘There is no guarantee that I will ever be able to return’
For Iranian athletes, deliberately losing to avoid facing Israeli opponents “is an unwritten order that has been applied for many years,” judoka Saeid Mollaei told DW on Thursday. “This is something [the authorities] ask us to do and we have to comply with it, even if it is not a written law.”
Mollaei claimed that he was instructed to lose at the World Championships in Tokyo last month to ensure that he would not come up against Israel’s Sagi Muki in the final. He added that after disobeying the order and entering the semi-final he knew that “there is no guarantee that I will ever be able to return to my country.” Mollaei did not travel back to Iran after the competition, going to Germany instead, where he has a long-term visa. He will compete in the German judo Bundesliga for the Esslingen 1984 club.
‘I was at a crossroads’
Mollaei said that he lost in the semi-final because he was under pressure after “different authorities called me, called my coach and said this to me (…) I was at a crossroads and I had to decide what to do. (…) Before that I showed that I can beat anybody (…) But faced with this difficult decision, thinking about my family and my future, I was completely lost. This is why I couldn’t fight properly and I lost.”
Of Israel’s Sagi Muki, the new world champion, Mollaei said: “He is a friend of mine and I hope that we will one day be able to share this friendship in the ring, no matter who wins. The important thing is to show that friendship.”
The athlete said his main goal was to win a gold medal at the next Olympics. The International Judo Federation (IJF) “said they would try to help me to ensure that I will be able to go to the Tokyo Olympics next year, either under the Olympic flag or for a different country.”
The full interview will be posted here on Friday.