Source: http://www.jjif.org/website/?p=720
Rose Room, Shangri-La Hotel - Beijing (CHN)
Thursday, 26 April 2007
REPORT
Attendance : See list attached.
WELCOME & OPENING
GAISF President Hein Verbruggen welcomed all the participants. Three members of the new GAISF Council were present at the meeting – Antonio Espinos, President of WKF (Karate), Paul Hoglund, President of JJIF (Ju-jitsu), and Jan Fransoo, President of IKF (Korfball). The latter was attending as an observer. All the members were present except for the AIBA (Boxing) and IFS (Sumo).Mr Verbruggen reminded the participants that at the previous meeting in Brussels on 18 December, it had been agreed that a working group would be set up to study the implications of organising the Martial Arts Games (MAG), with the technical and financial aspects and a description of requirements and conditions, with input from the IOC. In this respect, Patrick van Campenhout, Stephan Fox and Christine Dominguez had met in Lausanne on 16 February 2007 together with Anthony Scanlon, Head of Games Services and Co-ordination at the IOC who had made a very useful presentation. Antonio Espinos had been unable to attend. A document had then been drafted outlining the different specifications for the Martial Arts Games.
GAISF MARTIAL ARTS GAMES DRAFT REVIEW
Mr Verbruggen invited Patrick van Campenhout to read out the different parts of the said document which referred to the items of the agenda. All comments from the participants would be welcome.
1. Event Owner
Mr Hoglund asked about the legal possibility of owning the MAG and proposed to call the event “GAISF Martial Arts Games” to avoid any problems. He also wanted to know how the MAG could be protected against the Games organised by the IMGC. Mr Verbruggen agreed that it might be wise to add a name and proposed to seek legal advice for name and rights, and to find out whether it was possible to do this according to the GAISF Statutes or if it were necessary to have a commercial entity.The IMGC issue would be broached later on in the meeting.
2. MA Games
Referring to the point that the Martial Arts IFs should agree to not organise any other major martial art events in the same year as the MAG, Mr van Campenhout explained that the idea was to ensure the participation of the best athletes.Mr Verbruggen stressed that this did not mean that World Championships should no longer take place. He reported that most of the IFs that participated in the Olympic Games maintained their World Championships nevertheless.Mr Verbruggen suggested holding the first MAG in 2010 and after that to decide whether it should be every 2 years or not. If it were to take place every 2 years, then Olympic years should be avoided. François Besson stressed that the Olympic Code and WADA Code should apply to the MAG.Mr Espinos raised the question about “IOC patronage” and “NOC support”. Mr Verbruggen underlined the fact that IOC patronage was more of an “honorary title” and that there would be no real IOC involvement. With regard to NOC support, this would be difficult to obtain the first year, but could be achieved in the future.Mr Espinos insisted on the fact that the MAG should be financially feasible and in order to achieve this, the top athletes must be present. In this respect, he would prefer that the MAG take place every 4 years, provided this was financially feasible. Mr Verbruggen explained that it would be necessary to find TV sponsors and the like. As to financial support, interest had already been shown by certain cities. Consequently, the IFs would not have to pay for everything.Mr Verbruggen declared that there would have to be a viable proposition. If the first event were a success, the following events would be easier, since sponsors would be more likely to contribute. For the first event it was necessary to negotiate a contract so that the local TV rights would be for the host city and the TV rights for the rest of the world for GAISF.
3. Cultural programme
Mr Verbruggen emphasised that this part of the event was essential because it would bring added value and put the event on a higher level.
4. Participation at the MA Games
Mr Hoglund commented that it would be better for each IF to be able to select competitors as they wished and not necessarily to organise a specific competition. Mr Besson explained that for the Olympic Games, each IF submitted its qualification system for each continent to the IOC. For this, his federation, the IJF (Judo) had to proceed to a quota system. It was also necessary to propose a calendar which would allow fair participation and also fair travel distances (so as to avoid financial discrimination). This calendar had to be prepared in co-operation with the IOC and submitted to the IOC. All the NOCs were then informed. This was a new concept.Mr Besson underlined the importance of having some indication of the number of participants. He explained that for the Olympic Games the figures were given.Mr Verbruggen suggested a maximum of 1,000 athletes.The number of disciplines would become more obvious after an initial questionnaire had been filled out.It was decided that Mr Besson would help with this and would prepare a questionnaire for the IFs.Mr Espinos pointed out the necessity of defining how many venues would be needed for the sports and how long each competition should run. This breakdown should be defined as soon as possible in order to be ready for the MAG in 2010.The IFs present were basically interested in participating.
5. Host City Selection Process
Mr Verbruggen confirmed that different cities would be asked to bid for the 1st MAG in 2010. He reported that to date Bangkok, Moscow and Canada had expressed interest.(Michel Dusson had to leave the meeting at this point and informed Mr Verbruggen that Mr Besson would represent him.)Mr Falsoni asked if it were possible to contact other cities for hosting the MAG and when the final date for bidding was. Mr Verbruggen explained that the tender was not yet open, so there were no specifications or deadlines so far. He agreed that it would be important to have some publicity for the MAG within the IFs in order to encourage participation.The deadline should be set quickly since it was not reasonable to wait until the next plenary session to do this.Mr Verbruggen proposed Mr Espinos to be responsible for the MAG within the Council and that he would start things moving quickly with the help of Mr Hoglund. Mr Espinos accepted this responsibility with pleasure. He drew attention to the fact that if it were not possible to guarantee arrangements in time it would be preferable to postpone the event for another year.Mr Falsoni reminded the members that in Brussels the decision had been to aim for excellence. Mr Verbruggen corroborated this and reported that the IOC Executive Board had been informed and that the IOC gave its full support to the event.
6. Responsibilities of the Host City
Mr Besson stressed the importance of visas and that the host city should guarantee that visas would be issued for all countries wishing to take part. He reported that in 1977, Chinese Taipei had been unable to obtain visas for the IJF World Championships in Spain and that as a result the event had had to be cancelled.It would therefore be better to change “facilitate the issue of entrance visa…” into “to guarantee …”David Rudman said that visa access was not guaranteed.Mr Verbruggen insisted that it was a crucial point and that the host city MUST guarantee this. It was possible that certain individuals could be refused access because they appeared on Interpol’s list and the country could refuse entry, but otherwise access should definitely be guaranteed.Mr Besson suggested that after the point “to arrange for insurance against liability claims and the damages of non-performance”, it should be added in brackets that “the National Federations were responsible for their athletes and officials.”
7. Travelling Expenses
Mr Verbruggen remarked that he knew from experience that it was possible to obtain a lot from host cities, including arrangements with airlines, etc.He suggested adding in the bidding book that travelling expenses would be borne by the host city. Therefore it was important to select the best top athletes to limit the costs for the host city.Mr Espinos reminded the participants that at the meeting in December he had asked how many competitors from each IF were likely to take part in the MAG. A key point was to be able to inform the host city how many participants would be present. It was therefore important that the delegations should be more homogeneous. There should be a limited number in each delegation so as to reduce the costs, consequently making it more feasible for the host city to cover them. He believed that the 60 best athletes in the world for each sport would be enough to give prestige to the MAG and sell TV rights.August Dragt agreed and went then on to ask about the expenses incurred for the seminars and cultural programme.Mr Verbruggen explained that for SportAccord, for example, the majority of the contributions consisted of value in kind – cheap hotel rooms, conference rooms etc. - for a total value of 3 million USD. The seminars would make the MAG a very special event and if high quality were ensured then the host cities would be prepared to pay.PVC stressed the importance of knowing the size of the delegation for the conditions and requirements (cahier des charges).
NEXT PLENARY SESSION
A proposal had been made by IFMA to hold the next plenary session in Bangkok from 3 to 5 December at the same time as the celebrations for the King of Thailand’s 80th birthday.The proposal was accepted and the meeting was definitely fixed for 5 December.Satchye Tapsuwan thanked all the members and hoped they would enjoy the hospitality in Bangkok.Mr van Campenhout felt that it was a good idea to hold each plenary session either at an NOC headquarters (as in Brussels) or during a major Martial Arts event.
MISCELLANEOUS
As regards the IMGC and Ung Chang, Mr Verbruggen reported that he had originally scheduled meetings with Ung Chang and the IMGC president during SportAccord, but that these had not taken place. Mr Fox believed that the IMGC intended to organise Games in 2008 but Hein Verbruggen assured the IFs that there was nothing to worry about.Mr Hoglund drew attention to the fact that these people were continuing to misuse the GAISF name. He felt that this propaganda could be harmful to GAISF.Mr Verbruggen reminded everybody that Ung Chang was an IOC member, which explained why Dr Rogge had written him a “nice” letter. However he was confident that the IMGC Games would go no further than North Korea. Mr Espinos agreed that this matter created confusion within the National Federations and that it was difficult for them to identify who was who.Mr Verbruggen would keep the members informed about his next discussions with Mr Chang as to the IMGC.
CLOSING
Mr Verbruggen thanked the Working Group for the drafting of this document and the work involved.He went on to thank the members for their presence and wished everybody success in their respective events. He then closed the meeting.
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