On the first day of the 6th European Judo Festival here in Poreč, the EJU Administration and Organisation Seminar was headed by Head Office Director, Dr Martin POIGER. After an introduction to the programme at hand that will continue over the next two days, EJU General Secretary, Ezio GAMBA expressed his gratitude to this event,
I would like to say thank you to the Croatian Judo Federation for their hospitality, the Judo Festival has returned for the fourth year to Poreč. It is a really amazing location, the general activity, engagement between friends, family events and kata, it has been a great opportunity to find a location like this and continue in this direction. There are many more people than last year so we are very happy, this year there are 35 nations, the level of organisation and camp is really high.
As the European Judo Union continues to grow and participation exceeds the previous years, there was a particular time to highlight communication between head office and the national federations as well as major factors such as team entries, transport and accommodation, education projects, media and anti-doping among others.
An important addition came from the IOC charter, the three-year period of which an athlete must wait before competing must be approved by the IJF, regardless if the three-year period has been respected, or the shorter period has been agreed by the IJF, the necessary documents must be sent for registration in Judobase. Especially for the Olympic Games this must be approved by the IJF as well as the IOC.
With such a vast amount of information, POIGER explains the importance of this particular seminar,
Besides the congress where the Presidents meet, this seminar is very important because the operational levels, secretaries and office managers come together and exchange experiences. Of course we use this opportunity to inform them on new developments and to discuss issues in the daily life of sports administration.
A reminder was delivered in regards to assisting Cadet and Junior athletes with refugee status, the IJF wants to help the younger athletes, as the athletes would typically wait longer for citizenship. In order to compete the individual must be registered by the national federation of the host country in to IJF or Continental Unions Juniors and younger competitions if they meet the following requirements,
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Prove residency in host country (at least one year).
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Prove the integration of their parents in the host country (at least one year).
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Prove integration in school or university (at least one year).
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Prove integration in a judo club of the host country, duly affiliated to the National Federation which is an IJF member.
Inclusion is exceptionally important within the European Judo Union, and can be seen each day in the European Judo Festival, with nations from around the world coming to take part. EJU Vice President, Jane Bridge explained why this years seminar was added to the Festival,
The Administration and Organisation Seminar is for those national federations that are organising comps under the EJU flag, so they need to be updated on news, org rules and such things. It is an important event on the EJU calendar but something special this year is that it’s during the Judo Festival. The aim of the Judo Festival is to bring all members of the judo family together so we added this on this year so that they can get the feel of it and also go and observe other activities while they’re here.
Author: Thea Cowen