Rugby Federation Head Reacts to Women's Team Not Being Sent: 'No One Gives Us a Straight Answer!'

Head of the Iran Rugby Federation speaks about the women's team not being sent.

According to ambassador Arjan; Mir Mahdi Hosseini, President of the Iran Rugby Association, in a conversation with the ambassador of Arjan about the non-sending of the women's national rugby team to the second round of the Asian Series (first-level Asian competitions) in Sri Lanka, said: The Iranian women's national rugby team won the silver medal in the Asia Trophy, which was the first time in the history of Iran's women's rugby, that it won the quota to participate in the Asia Series, which is the best in Asia in this category. The first round of the tournament was held in Shanghai, the last match was not held due to rain and it was supposed to be held in the second round, but unfortunately, the women's national rugby team was not sent to the second round of the tournament.

Hosseini continued: I don't know why our team was not sent. I think that the Federation of Sports Associations itself did not send the application to the Ministry of Sports to get permission from the Overseas Council, or maybe it was rejected by the Council. I also wrote to the federation, but they did not give a definitive answer. I, who am the first vice president and a member of the board of the federation, why should I not know about such important issues and reasons? Maybe I could have had a better correspondence with Asia if they had been honest with me in the beginning. The Asian Rugby Confederation sent me a letter saying that due to the Olympic nature of the discipline and the necessity of independent governance, we only recognize the Rugby Union and they do not recognize the Federation of Sports Associations. We are also stuck in the middle and are very confused. The dialogue that they have had with us from Asia in the past few days, my conclusion is that probably Iran's rugby will be fined. The Minister of Sports has repeatedly said that women's teams are our priority. Well, for the first time in the history of Iran's rugby, the women's national team received the quota to participate in level one Asian competitions and before that they also won silver medals in Asian trophy competitions. If the roads were closed and there were no flights, why were the Para-Asian teams and rural competitions in BRICS able to go? If there was no money, the Ministry of Sports and the Federation of Sports Associations did not inform us about this issue. If there is no money, they would not have sent the national team to the first stage. If we did not go to the first stage, we would announce to Asia that we have problems and we will not come. After the war, we had only 20 days of camp and we knew that we would not get results in the first round, but we would get better results in the second round when they did not send the team.

The president of the Rugby Association stated: This issue will definitely cause us to be fined, because we created a disturbance in the Asia level one tournament and messed up the schedule of the second stage of the tournament. Because the Federation of Sports Associations told us that we will not be sent, I already sent a letter to Asia and asked what will happen if we are not sent? They said that you will be fined up to 80,000 dollars, and you may be banned and suspended for several years, and your membership may be canceled.

The head of the Rugby Association continued: The Volleyball World League also has several rounds, so the reason is that the teams take advantage of hosting. These matches are 2-3 rounds and you cannot send the team to the next rounds. Can you go the first round of volleyball and not send the second round? The dignity of Iranian sports is affected by these actions. Now who is responsible for these children, the athletes who abandoned their work and came to the national team training. They trained hard but were not sent! Rugby has no ground now. We have said all this that we are an Olympic sport and your compatriots, we have the right to have a field, so why don't you give rugby a field? We request a clear answer! Does the development and equipment company have few facilities? Do you know that owning a field will increase the Olympic field and reduce the expenses of the federation?! This is for everyone's benefit.

In the end, Hosseini said: Rugby is an Olympic sport and has medals in the Asian Games. I hope the Minister of Sports will examine these issues more seriously. I have a question from Ms. Fariba Mohammadian, who follows women's sports cases, why women's rugby was not sent. If it's about lack of money, then you wouldn't have sent him to the first round. If the problem is flights, why are the rest of the fields going to competitions now? The tournament was in Sri Lanka and we had to go to Oman or Türkiye to go to Sri Lanka from there. Well, the Turkish flight is open.