Nigeria Wrestling Federation President Baraladei Daniel Igali has appealed to the United World Wrestling President over the visa refusal of four Nigerian athletes for the 2025 World Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
In a letter addressed to the UWW President, Igali described the visa denials as “a devastating blow” to the Nigerian delegation and called for urgent intervention with Croatian authorities.
The affected athletes are Mercy Genesis, Ogunsanya Christianah, Ojo Hannah and Izolo Simon, all of whom had fulfilled accreditation and travel requirements for the championships.
Croatian authorities cited doubts about whether the athletes would return to Nigeria as the primary reason for the refusal, a justification Igali dismissed as “wholly misplaced and unjust” for accredited athletes representing their country.
“Such reasoning, while perhaps applicable to casual tourists, is wholly misplaced and unjust when applied to accredited athletes representing their country, officially invited and recognised by United World Wrestling, and fully funded by their government,” Igali wrote.
The federation president highlighted the credentials of the refused athletes, noting that Hannah and Simon both won their first African titles this year, while Christianah and Genesis are multiple-time African champions who represented Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Igali argued that denying visas on “flimsy and arbitrary grounds” constituted “a direct assault on their years of sacrifice, preparation, and dreams” and risked creating a discriminatory two-tiered system in international sport.
“When discriminatory visa practices are allowed to persist, whether deliberately or inadvertently, they create a two-tiered system in which some athletes are welcomed and others are unjustly shut out,” he stated.
The UWW Bureau member emphasised the importance of the World Wrestling Championships as a pathway to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, warning that excluding the athletes would “irreparably damage their careers” whilst sending “a chilling signal that athletes from certain regions—especially Africa—are second-class participants in global sport”.
With the Nigerian team scheduled to depart for Zagreb on 13 September 2025, Igali appealed for immediate intervention to ensure the athletes receive their visas.
“I therefore appeal to you, with the utmost urgency and in the strongest yet most respectful terms, to intervene directly with the Croatian authorities to ensure that these athletes are granted their visas immediately,” he wrote.
The federation president warned that anything less than full participation would “not only diminish the credibility of the Championships but would also tarnish the values we all work so hard to protect”.
