The Olympic Committee shocks the Algerian champion who withdrew in front of an Israeli with a “very severe” penalty

Today, Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee announced a severe penalty against Algerian judoka Fathi Norine and his coach Ammar Benkhlef, after he withdrew from facing an Israeli player in the “Tokyo 2020” Olympics.

The committee decided to ban the player and his coach from all official competitions for a full 10 years, a penalty that would end his sports career once and for all, and he is considered the African champion in the weight of less than 73 kg.

فتحي نورين للشروق نيوز في أول تصريح له بعد اقصائه لـ 10 سنوات دوليا: عوقبت بسبب تواطؤ من جزائريين مثل الرئيس السابق لإتحادية الجودو محمد مريجة
🔴نورين: تم التضحية بي لتهديد رياضيين آخرين من الانسحاب أمام الصهـ.اينة مستقبلا pic.twitter.com/oldkQDkrLz

— نورالدين الجزائري (@aqZUTfBbcaEaGsy) September 7, 2021

The son of the city of Oran and his coach, had made the event during the last Olympics, after they publicly announced their refusal to be in the ring with the player of Israel, which sparked a lot of controversy at the time, especially since Noreen accused the head of the Olympic delegation, Hassiba Boumerka, of pressuring him to play to avoid penalties.

Noreen said in statements to Algerian media that he was “shocked by the punishment”, adding that he was not expecting such cruel punishment.

“We will appeal the sentence imposed on us, and I ask the authorities to stand by me,” he added.

The wrestler and his coach were informed of this penalty, effective as of July 23, 2021, while informing them that they can appeal this decision to the International Sports Court, and the deadline for submitting appeals has been set for 21 days, starting from the date of receipt of the decision taken.

On Saturday, July 24, the International Judo Federation website published a statement that included an initial penalty of suspension without specifying a period, and said at the time that it would issue a final and official penalty after the meeting of its disciplinary committee after the end of the Olympic Games.

Noreen decided to withdraw from this international event as a step in support of the Palestinian cause (according to him), and this was not the first time that the Algerian player took this position.

The coach of the Algerian national judo team, Ammar Ben Yakhlef, said: “The luck did not help us in the draw, where the wrestler Fathi Noureen faced the Zionist wrestler in the second round, and this is what prompted us to take the decision to withdraw.”
He continued: “Praise be to God, Algeria and the Algerians have constants towards the Palestinian cause, and we are against normalization with the Zionist entity, and God willing, God will compensate us with what is good.”