IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships:
Iran’s participation in doubt over visa denial
Iran’s men’s team may withdraw from the upcoming IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships, which will kick off Wednesday in Ottawa, Canada, after the host country failed to issue entry visas to Iranian head coach Behrouz Soltani and his assistant.
Iran is to begin its Group D campaign against Germany on the opening day of the competition before facing Morocco two days later, followed by a final group game against hosts Canada on Saturday.
The top two teams from each of the two groups will progress to the quarterfinals.
“We still hope the issue will be resolved and that we can travel to Canada before the competition gets underway,” Soltani’s assistant, Mohammadreza Dastyar, who has also been denied a Canadian visa, told Mehr News Agency on Saturday, as the Iranian squad remains in Istanbul.
Asked whether the national team would compete at the World Championships without the two main members of the coaching staff, Dastyar said the decision rests with the Iranian Ministry of Sports and the Sports Federation for the Enabled.
With the World Championships serving as part of the Paralympic qualification pathway, a possible withdrawal could deal a major blow to the Iranian team, bronze medalists at the previous edition, in its bid to secure a berth at the LA 2028 Paralympics.