United World Wrestling (UWW) president Nenad Lalovic said it will lift the suspension of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) the moment it conducts free and fair elections, but not before that.
“If the elections are democratically performed, then we will have no objections. We will send an observer. After the elections, if there are no complaints from stakeholders, then we will lift the suspension almost immediately. We do not need to make it longer if the problem is solved,” Lalovic said on the sidelines of the IOC Session here.
In August, the world body suspended WFI for not conducting its elections on time, forcing the Indian wrestlers to compete as neutrals at the World Championships.
The Supreme Court, earlier this month, sought a response on a plea by the WFI ad-hoc committee that challenged a stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on holding the elections.
“Let’s hope the situation does not remain confused,” Lalovic said. “There must be a hearing of the Supreme Court on the 3rd of November and after that, I believe the elections will be organised in a month or so in order to have normal governance of the federation.”
The UWW chief said the world body followed the wrestlers’ public protests against the then WFI chief alleged of sexual harrassment with concern.
“We have concerns about the well-being of our athletes. This is another possibility to have a suspension. Now this case is followed by the Indian authorities, and we will not interfere in that except if athletes approach us again for some reason. We listen to the voices of the athletes no matter where they come from. I think everything that’s been done recently is in the right direction and that will soon solve the problems of Indian wrestling,” he said.
