Igali Appeals Athletes’ Visa Refusal For World Wrestling Championship

Nigeria Wrestling Federation President Baraladei Daniel Igali has appealed to the United World Wrestling President implicit the visa refusal of 4 Nigerian athletes for the 2025 World Wrestling Championships successful Zagreb, Croatia.

In a missive addressed to the UWW President, Igali described the visa denials arsenic “a devastating blow” to the Nigerian delegation and called for urgent involution with Croatian authorities.

The affected athletes are Mercy Genesis, Ogunsanya Christianah, Ojo Hannah and Izolo Simon, each of whom had fulfilled accreditation and question requirements for the championships.

Croatian authorities cited doubts astir whether the athletes would instrumentality to Nigeria arsenic the superior crushed for the refusal, a justification Igali dismissed arsenic “wholly misplaced and unjust” for accredited athletes representing their country.

“Such reasoning, portion possibly applicable to casual tourists, is wholly misplaced and unjust erstwhile applied to accredited athletes representing their country, officially invited and recognised by United World Wrestling, and afloat funded by their government,” Igali wrote.

The federation president highlighted the credentials of the refused athletes, noting that Hannah and Simon some won their archetypal African titles this year, portion Christianah and Genesis are multiple-time African champions who represented Nigeria astatine the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Igali argued that denying visas connected “flimsy and arbitrary grounds” constituted “a nonstop battle connected their years of sacrifice, preparation, and dreams” and risked creating a discriminatory two-tiered strategy successful planetary sport.

“When discriminatory visa practices are allowed to persist, whether deliberately oregon inadvertently, they make a two-tiered strategy successful which immoderate athletes are welcomed and others are unjustly unopen out,” helium stated.

The UWW Bureau subordinate emphasised the value of the World Wrestling Championships arsenic a pathway to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, informing that excluding the athletes would “irreparably harm their careers” whilst sending “a chilling awesome that athletes from definite regions—especially Africa—are second-class participants successful planetary sport”.

With the Nigerian squad scheduled to depart for Zagreb connected 13 September 2025, Igali appealed for contiguous involution to guarantee the athletes person their visas.

“I truthful entreaty to you, with the utmost urgency and successful the strongest yet astir respectful terms, to intervene straight with the Croatian authorities to guarantee that these athletes are granted their visas immediately,” helium wrote.

The federation president warned that thing little than afloat information would “not lone diminish the credibility of the Championships but would besides tarnish the values we each enactment truthful hard to protect”.