Behdad Salimi Vs. Kourosh Bagheri

[Persian-Pride87]

Mohammad Bana is an absolute genius. He single handedly turned around greco-roman wrestling for Iran.

Historically we have been great in free style but almost non-existent in greco. Bana was able to turn us into an absolute power house. It was mainly his doing that developed the amazing world champions such as Sourian/rezaei/nourozi and abdevali.

Thanks, these guys seem like really talented coaches! They should write books on wrestling and preserve what they know and teach people. They are an authority on the subject and I'm guessing they're coaching is the reason why we're doing so good in wrestling recently?

[Persian-Pride87]

I agree with you completely my friend.

Part of them problem with us Iranians in general is that we have too much 'ghoroor' and 'gheyrat' which causes us to lose control/be rational at the first sign of a perceived insult or disrespect.

i agree with that as well

in the end its for your COUNTRY and not some club....if it was a club then yes its fine to boycott but for your country and how many people are considering you a hero...you should've just sucked it up, went and won the gold and then stepped aside saying i only did this for my people and i dont like the coach, f the federation, i'm out. This woulda been a classy move that would've made him even more fans.

[teammelli8080]

oh please cut the BS, he does not have to say anything about the "rahbar" as if his life depends on it!! many great athletes in iran never bowed down to anyone and that is how they became legends. this guy for a sake of getting a piece a land, money etc.... which he truly deserves should not kiss ass to anyone!!! IRI needs him more than he needs IRI

YOU cut the BS. how long have you not been in iran for? have you forgotten how it works? rezazadeh is rahbar's dear who would sit next to him in all the ceremonies and kiss his hand. you think if you're going against a federation whose main figurehead is someone who has the implicit governmental support, that you can just get by without trying to at least level the playing field? you guys are completely out of the loop and so far removed from the society that you've forgotten what it's like.

I still believe Bagheri's version of what happened over these 5 wrestlers. We will likely never find out the exact story/truth.
I think this is a very stupid move by our wweightlifting federation. If the federation believed Bagheri then they should have banned these weightlifters from competing again for Iran. Call me crazy but I think all athletes, no matter the sport, should perform for their countries no matter what issues they are dealing with. Its one thing to dislike your coach or feel offended by your coach but this in my view is not a valid reason to not only boycott your national team but encourage other weightlifters to do the same.
Now, if the federation believed the weightlifters and their accounts of what happened, then Bagheri should have been fired much earlier. In my opinion, Iran's weightlifting federation just showed its incompetence by how it handled the situation. Bagheri wasn't fired prior to the worlds and the wrestlers who staged this mutiny are allowed to come back to the national team... Essentially, the federation chose neither option allowing this embarrassing situation to fester. Makes no sense at all.

I don't believe Bagheri's side at all, seems he was just butt-hurt from them voting for bana and other nonsense like this. The federation seems like they're bullying these guys. Tell me, even if the visa thing was real, why wouldn't you at least TELL him that he's won the international weighlifter of the year award so he can be happy about this feat, instead of secretly communicating on behalf of the player and then sending rezazadeh to uzbek when 20 other players had NO problems with visa, etc. this federation is full of spite. Rezazadeh is doing to Salimi what Shaq tried to do to Dwight Howard and it is nothing but pure jealousy and bullying.

These weightlifters haven't been paid their PROMISED OLYMPIC REWARDS from LAST YEAR. you all seem to conveniently forget that, unlike football where the players have CLUB teams where they make the most of their money, and then so can be expected to participate in the national stage "for their country", the payments for sports like weightlifting in any sort of domestic activity is NOTHINGGGGGGG compared to the payouts for olympic/international wins. how come these guys haven't been paid?? it's over 100 million toman that they are out! that is tens of thousands of dollars, which would be a HUGE thing in the US, much less in Iran. Tell me how many peoples' stomachs you can fill with "national pride". Bullcrap.