TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran has protested to the United States over its treatment of the national Iranian volleyball team at the Chicago Airport where they arrived Sunday for the final round of Volleyball National League (VNL) matches.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the squad was held waiting for hours upon arrival at the airport, adding a protest note had been sent by the ministry’s director for Americas Mohsen Baharvand to the Swiss ambassador to Tehran.
"If the U.S. cannot host all athletic teams in a fair and even-handed way, it had better refrain from playing host to athletic competitions,” Baharvand said, slamming U.S. authorities’ treatment of Iranian athletes.
Iran, Brazil, Poland, Russia, France and the U.S. made it to the finals of 2019 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League. They are about to square up for the title through July 10-14 at Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago.
Iranian players received the same treatment in June 2018 when U.S. security forces mistreated Iranian players upon their arrival at an American airport.
At the time, Iran’s national volleyball team coach Igor Kolakovic said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had asked Iranian volleyball players "stupid questions”.
"In the USA, the FBI … asked some players one by one some stupid questions,” Kolakovic said.
"Police keep us in the airport in one small place for almost three hours and at the same time Poland passed close to us with smiles, without any procedure…”
"We are a national team in one sport… For us it mustn’t be a problem,” he added.