Indian MMA athlete Varun Sanyal has spoken about the problems he faced after arriving in Japan for the Asian Games, where the sport is making its debut at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.Sanyal, a bronze medallist at the Asian Championships in China in January 2026, travelled from London to Nagoya via Mumbai and Singapore. But his problems began after he reached Japan, where he said he was made to wait for hours at different facilities as officials struggled to clear him and assign him a room.In a seven-minute video that he later deleted from social media, Sanyal said he faced long delays at the convention centre after officials could not find his name in their system. He had an official accreditation ID card, which also serves as his visa, but said officials were still unable to locate his details.He said he was left waiting for around three hours without a clear resolution or food before being moved between different venues and eventually directed to the Costa Serena cruise ship, which is being used to house athletes.“It’s been one crazy day, and it’s still not over. I thought it was done, but it’s not. There’s a lot of chaos with regards to the athletes’ rooms and assignment of rooms. Had this happened in India, 100% this would be a bigger deal. The media would be running wild with it, and India as a country wouldn’t hear the end of it,” Sanyal said in the now-deleted video.Sanyal said the problems began soon after he arrived in Nagoya.“When you get to Nagoya, from the airport they take you on a shuttle… and as soon as you get there, it’s total chaos. I go to the counter… and they just cannot find my name anywhere in the system. Like, I’m a total ghost in their system. This took about two hours… I’m not exaggerating, two hours they’re like running around. By the time we left that facility, it had been three hours. By the way, my situation wasn’t solved,” he added.The delay also meant that Sanyal was unable to get food during the wait.“In none of these facilities was there any food. They’d give you water bottles, but there’s no food and you can’t even go anywhere and buy anything,” he said.“Yes, I know as an MMA fighter or perhaps a wrestler, boxer, you’re cutting weight, etc., but you still need to eat. You still need some kind of food.”At the third facility, Sanyal said he met athletes from Tajikistan and Sri Lanka who were facing similar problems.“Everyone is facing a similar issue. So this has gone, this has become widespread. So I’m like, what the hell is going on?”
Three athletes assigned one room
Sanyal was eventually taken to the Costa Serena and given a room. After showering, he went to sleep, believing that the problems were over.About 30 minutes later, however, he woke up after hearing a commotion and found two Indian athletes standing in the room.“I just see two Indian athletes standing right above me, looking as confused as I was, and we’re just looking at each other like, what’s going on here,” he said.The two athletes had also been assigned the same room.“Turns out in the system, they’ve assigned me this room. But this room originally belonged to them,” Varun said.All three were then left unsure about what would happen next.“These two poor athletes are now in the same sort of loop that I was in. I don’t know what’s gonna happen either. They’re gonna get kicked out. I may get bumped off again.“It’s just a mess. It’s just a mess.”Sanyal’s account comes amid wider concerns over accommodation arrangements at the Asian Games.South Korea’s Olympic committee said on Monday there was “a serious shortage of accommodation” at the event, while officials from the Philippines turned to Airbnb.The accommodation problems continued into Thursday, with even athletes from the host nation Japan reportedly looking for alternative arrangements after cases in which male and female athletes were allocated shared rooms.Local organisers had initially expected about 15,000 athletes and officials to attend the Games. They later said they had “neither the manpower nor the budget” to deal with the higher number.Organisers subsequently issued a joint statement with the Olympic Council of Asia saying that all athletes and officials registered before the July deadline would be “provided with Games-appropriate accommodation”.More than 17,000 competitors and officials are expected to attend the Games.The number of participants, which is higher than at the Olympics, has created problems for organisers who initially planned for 15,000 people and have had to find accommodation for the additional participants.They decided not to build a dedicated athletes’ village in order to reduce costs. Instead, athletes and officials are being housed in a mix of hotels, a cruise ship and temporary accommodation, including wooden cabins and shipping container-style huts.
