Head of Iranian Olympics walks out of gold medal ceremony for Iranian athlete
TABNAK: Mohammad Aliabadi, Head of Iranian Olympics Committee, suddenly walked out of the medal ceremony in Asian games, in which an Iranian athlete (Hamidreza Gholeepour) was to be awarded a gold medal. This was seen as a disgrace to the Iranian team. It is said that Aliabadi has had long standing disagreements with Ali Saeedloo, Head of National Sports Administration. Saeedloo has been very visible in Asian games and in today's ceremony also was the one who did the honors of awarding the medal to the Iranian Athlete.
Both Saeedloo and Aliabadi are close friends of Ahmadinejad. Last year, Ahmadinejad assigned Saeedloo to replace Aliabadi as Head of National Sports Administration due to Aliabadi's very poor record, which was even admitted by Ahmadinejad. Nevertheless, Saeedloo's assignment also caused outrage among sports enthusiasts and critics because, like Aliabadi, Saeedloo had no athletic background either. Aliabadi's background was in construction and Saeedloo's background in excavation and geology. Saeedloo and Aliabadi have been each other's rivals, and now hold the top 2 Iran's national sports administration positions. Last year, some Iranian reformist sources claimed that Saeedloo and Aliabadi are both Billionaires and the wealthiest members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet. Reformists push the government on transparency on how the two amassed their wealth.