UWW suspends referees involved in SF bout of European OG Qualifiers

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY: The United World Wrestling (UWW) Disciplinary Chamber has decided to suspend the refereeing body and refereeing delegates for the alleged violations during 74kg semifinal bout between Italy's Frank Chamizo and Turan Bayramov of Azerbaijan at the European Olympic Games Qualifier, the world wrestling body said.

The European qualifiers were held in Baku from April 5-7.

Bayramov won the semifinal bout 8-8 on criteria and earned a Paris Olympic quota for Azerbaijan. However, the Italian Wrestling Federation complained about several refereeing mistakes during the bout and a controverted challenge decision which are deemed to have caused an incorrect final score and outcome of the match.

During the semifinal bout, Roman Pavlov was the referee on the mat, Ali M. Saiwan was the judge and Aleksei Bazulin Bazulim was the mat chairman. The referee delegation comprised Kamel Bouaziz, Ibrahim Cicioglu and Casey Goessl.

"The Disciplinary Chamber has decided to suspend both Pavlov and Cicioglu from all their duties until December 31, 2024. Saiwan is suspended from all his duties until September 30, 2024. Mat chairman for the bout Bazulin is suspended from all his duties until June 30, 2024, and the remaining two members of the referee delegation Bouaziz and Goessl have been handed suspensions from all their duties until June 30, 2024," the UWW statement read.

It added, "Despite the sanctions, Bayramov remains the winner of the bout as according to Article 53 of the International Wrestling Rules, under no circumstances may the result of a match be modified after the victory has been declared on the mat."

Moreover, the disciplinary chamber asked UWW to place Chamizo as a top seed in the brackets of the next qualifying event, the World Olympic Games Qualifier, scheduled from April 9-12 in Istanbul.

Earlier, UWW set up two different panels to independently and separately analyse the refereeing decisions, including the challenge decisions, of the match between Chamizo and Bayramov.

The panels agreed that some actions during the bout were not scored correctly, including not spotting the passivity of the wrestler(s). It also agreed that the "refereeing consultations were not efficient, a timing error was made and the challenge consultation suffered major shortcomings in its functioning".

In addition, it reported a "gross lack of discernment" in the assignment of the refereeing body, and in the distribution of the roles during the challenge for the specific match.