Uzbekistan, through the world wrestling body FILA, has decided to bar Nigeria and four other African countries from featuring in the 2014 Senior World Wrestling Championships holding in Tashkent, Uzbekistan due to the reported cases of the Ebola Virus Disease in the affected countries.
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Congo DR are the other countries barred from the championships and the FILA Congress holding this month in the European country.
The restriction will also deny the African officials from contesting the FILA Bureau elections which hold at the same venue.
The championships hold from September 8 to 14, while the elections are set for September 7.
President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali, protested the decision, urging the international wrestling body to reconsider its decision as he cited a number of adverse effects such position might have on the wrestlers and the national associations.
Nigeria had planned to present seven wrestlers and officials at the event, and Igali had assured FILA of the safety measures adopted by Nigeria and its contingent as regards Ebola.
In a letter to the FILA president Mr. Nenad Lalovic, Igali said the decision had invariable tagged the wrestlers and officials as Ebola virus carriers.[eap_ad_2]
“In that letter, I expressed my displeasure and disappointment felt by the athletes and officials whose exclusion from the 2014 world championships, apart from preventing them from world class experience and opportunity, also stigmatises them as carriers of a horrible disease,” Igali wrote.
“I would like to get clarification from you on whether the said five federation presidents (now six, with Senegal which recently had a case of positive Ebola infection) can be allowed entry into Tashkent for the FILA congress. As Prince Sualley mentioned, there are stringent health checks in place at airports in these countries which makes it impossible for affected persons to make it through these checks to board flights out of them. You know the importance of the FILA congress in the calendar of a national wrestling federation. More importantly, there are a few presidents from these affected countries that are candidates for the FILA Bureau.
“Aside the CALA President who sits on the Bureau in his position as a continental President, we have no elected representative on the FILA Bureau – a situation that needs to be corrected at these elections.
“It would therefore be a huge disservice to the wrestling cause if I and my other colleagues are disallowed from participating at the FILA Congress and the ensuing elections. I am prepared to submit myself to any kind of tests if that will placate the minds of the Uzbekistani authorities.[eap_ad_3]
