Youth Player Denied Entry in Asian School Chess Festival

Here is a news article about a youth player who was not allowed to participate in hte Asian School Chess Festival:

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=42154&n_tit=Mangalore%3A+Chess+Prodigy+Denied+Entry+into+National+Chess+Festival

It is said that this player was training for 15 hours everyday in preparation of this event. According to the organizers the youth player was not allowed to participate because he did not play at the national level chess festival in 2006.

It is a shame that the tournament organizers make strict policies which do not allow someone entry into the event when they were expecting to play and were preparing months in advance. 

A similar incident happened here in Portugal some years back but with an experienced titled player. He was not permitted to play on the Portuguese team in the Olympiad because he had failed to play in the National Championship. The player who was not admitted is easily one of the best 3 players in Portugal and noone denies/doubts this and yet it was required that you must play in the National championship as well in order to be considered for the Olympiad team. There was a lot of fuss over this incident but in the end he didnt go and the Portuguese team was weaker without his participation.

Are you trying to say that these people were just following rules? If not, What are you trying to say? If so, then that's a very good question. I have no idea why they made that very stupid rule.