WSF, ASF: Omid Amiri Replies

Omid Amiri sent IronMind a lengthy description of how he became involved in international strongman—with his athlete Reza Gharaei competing in the 2005 IFSA World Open and then moving on to the World’s Strongest Man in 2006.

Referring to IMG and World’s Strongest Man, Amiri said, “We had great time with this group with high level competition and standard equipment and very good cooperation. 

“After that we received some letter from World strongmen Cup company that all of them signature with Vlad Redkin,” who Amiri said disparaged both IFSA and IMG, but then invited Amiri “and some of my athletes . . . to his low level competitions (not standard equipment and disciplines and he changed on day of competition equipment).” 

Amiri detailed what he saw as inadequate payment to his athletes, and Amiri also cited unpaid prize money at the Kish Island competition Redkin ran—a contest that hit some bumps in the road and was cancelled following some arrests after Arild Haugen lifted up some young Iranian women for photos.

After Kish Island, Amiri told IronMind, “Again we cooperate with my friends Marcel [Mostert] & Ilkka [Kinnunen] and sending Farzad to SCL competitions with good power.

“From 2009 until 2011 I worked very hard with IFBB,” Amiri said, with good competition results; and in 2011 he began to work in Europe, developing business relations, which he said caught Redkin’s eye.

“Vlad send me again some email for cooperation and he send me again one official letter from WSF that again ASF is his partner so again we cooperate and I invite him for Abu Dhabi Championship, and we sign in his official letter contract with organizer in Abu Dhabi (Capitan Kamal Mirmahdi) and Vlad used this name World Strongest Men Championship in Abu Dhabi that you can see in his official letter and our contract,” Amiri said.

Amiri said that Sheikh Hamdan was interested in cooperating “with us for future competition in Abu Dhabi [and] we (WSF & ASF) arranged a contract with him but when I come back home I understand he[Redkin] changed contract with his name only!” 

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