"Given the fact that the national freestyle wrestling team has tickets to fly to USA at 11:00 PM tonight to participate in the World Cup competitions, so far the visas for Alireza Karimi, Amir Ali Azarpira, Ali Akbar Fazli as wrestlers, Ehsan Amini and Abazar Eslami as coaches, and also Ebrahim Mehraban supervisor and Mohammad Moslaipour as a referee have not been issued so far," a statement by the Iranian wrestling federation read on Tuesday.
"According to the World Wrestling Federation's rules, if the Iranian national wrestling team does not participate in the World Cup competitions, it will be excluded from the Asian Championship competitions and then it will be banned from participating in the Belgrade World Championships, which is also followed by Olympic games," the statement added.
MNA/PR