Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Religious propaganda
Judoka and trainer banned for ten years
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo there was a first scandal early on. An Algerian judoka refuses a possible fight against an Israeli and prefers to renounce altogether. The international judo federation bans the athlete and his coach for ten years.
The Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine has been banned from competitions by the International Judo Federation IJF for ten years because of his withdrawal from the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Nourine’s coach Amar Benikhlef was also suspended for ten years.
Nourine had refused a possible fight against an Israeli at the Tokyo Games and refused to participate in the Olympics. The world association then started investigations against the 30-year-old athlete and his coach. Both had already been provisionally suspended in Tokyo.
Nourine could have met the Israeli Tohar Butbul in the weight class up to 73 kilograms. As a result, both the athlete and the coach expressed in the Algerian media their intention not to play at the games and justified this by saying that they did not want to fight an Israeli. Nourine and Benikhlef said they waived to express their support for the Palestinians. The Algerian Olympic Committee revoked both men’s accreditations and sent them home.
“It is evident that the two Algerian judoka maliciously used the Olympic Games as a platform for protest and to promote political and religious propaganda in a clear and grave violation of the IJF Statutes, the IJF Code of Ethics and the Olympic Charter represents “, it said in the IJF statement. Nourine and Benikhlef can now appeal their bans to the sports arbitration tribunal.
It is not the first time the IJF has had to intervene. In April, the association banned Iran for four years because of an identical action. At the World Cup two years ago, the then Iranian Saeid Mollaei was forced by his association through threats against him and his family to deliberately lose in order not to have to face Sagi Muki from Israel in the final. At the Olympic Games, Mollaei, who now lives in Germany, won silver in the class up to 81 kilograms. In Tokyo he competed for Mongolia.
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