IRNA – Minister of Sports and Youth Masoud Soltanifar said on Friday that the Organizing Committee of he Olympic Games and Samsung Company have officially apologized to Iranian athletes for excluding them from the list of athletes receiving high-end Samsung smartphones.


'We achieved our goals by their apology and acceptance of their mistakes. Insulting Iranian nation and athletes has now been compensated,' he said on the sidelines of the 38th Takhti Cup International Freestyle Wrestling Tournament in Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz on Friday.

'We immediately took a harsh stance toward the miscalculated and unethical behavior with the Iranian athletes as soon as we heard about the move because we deemed it an insult to the Iranian champion nation and culture,' he said.

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee apologized Iran for the unprofessional behavior towards Iranian athletes at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018.

'Deputy Head of International Olympics Committee and head of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games in separate letters to President of National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran Reza Salehi Amiri expressed regret over the unfair distribution of cellphones among athletes,' Iran's National Olympics Committee announced on Friday.

'This happened due to lack of proper communication between the phone distributor teams. We fully understand the inconvenience caused for the Iranian squad,' the letters read.