Judo Plans Lausanne Move to Raise Global Profile

(ATR) The president of the International Judo Federation tells Around the Rings a decision to move the federation’s headquarters from Dublin to Lausanne marks a “very important step” in the sport’s global development.

“For the judo family it is a historical decision,” Marius Vizer told ATR at the close of the congress in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on Sunday. More than 100 of the 108 member federations represented backed the relocation plan.

Vizer said the IJF’s move to Maison du Sport in the Swiss Olympic capital by the end of the year was aimed at improving communications between the IOC and judo. He believes it will bolster judo’s status as a summer Olympic sport.

The congress, held ahead of the 26th judo world championships in the Dutch port city on Wednesday, also took a significant decision in banning voting by proxy.

Vizer said it would stamp out corruption in voting on major proposals influencing the sport’s development. In years gone by, proxy votes had been bought for political reasons to swing key decisions one way or another, he noted.

The IJF also sought to alleviate concerns over wrestling-style moves that have crept into judo, with the congress proposing a ban on judokas grabbing legs of opponents or holding below the belt.

Vizer said it represents a return to “clean judo” and will help to better distinguish his sport from wrestling in the minds of IOC officials.

“It is very important because judo in some countries of the world follows a different kind of sport such as wrestling or other martial arts,” he said, adding that it would revive traditional techniques in judo and provide a boost in marketing and promoting the sport.

The rule change will be tried at the Junior World Championships in Athens in October and likely be rubber-stamped by the IJF executive later this year. The federation will also experiment with a shake-up of refereeing by reducing the number of officials from three to one.

The reforms join other changes trialed at the 2008 Junior World Championships in Bangkok which came into effect in January.

“All these changes will give judo a more spectacular setting,” Vizer said.

Ambitions for World Championships

Around 660 judoka from 105 countries are competing at the worlds at Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam.

Russia, Japan, Cuba, France, Brazil and The Netherlands are among the nations expected to perform strongly. More than seven reigning Olympic champions will participate in the 14 official Olympic weight divisions.

Vizer said his aspirations for the championships were “to have full venues of spectators, not to have any incidents and to have quality judo”.

He also hopes for good TV and media coverage. Seven international broadcasters and 200 accredited media will cover the five-day event.

Vizer will be joined by IJF sports director Vladimir Barta, refereeing director Juan Carlos Barcos, Dutch judo federation president Jos Hell and former Olympic and world Champion David Douillet at a media briefing on Tuesday evening.

Dutch judo legend Anton Geesink, IOC member from The Netherlands, will be a major presence through the championships.

A three-time world champion in 1961, 1964 and 1965, Geesink also won Olympic gold at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

Rotterdam has dressed up for the championships, with banners bearing the images of Dutch stars Henk Grol and Deborah Gravenjstijn appearing on posters all over the city.

Healthy Finances

Despite the tough economic climate, the IJF appears to be in better financial shape than most other summer Olympic federations who have struggled to retain sponsors and recruit new partners.

The IJF’s revenues have rocketed from $600,000 to $8.5 million in just two years, Vizer confirmed.

The revenue growth has mainly been spurred by the addition of sizeable sponsorship deals with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil giant, and Russian banks VTB and OTP.

“Even in a difficult economic situation we have new sponsors and are negotiating for two more sponsors,” Vizer said, adding that Mastercard and an insurance company were other partners being lined up.

Last year, the IJF distributed $800,000 among 27 countries of less than one million people, mainly through equipment and resources. In 2010, the IJF is committing $1 million to grow the sport in developing nations of the world.

Small Countries World Championships

The IJF is exploring the idea of staging a Small Countries World Championships every two years to allow its smaller constituents the chance to compete against each other for global titles.

A letter is being sent to 48 of the 199 federations affiliated to the IJF to sound them out on the proposal. The first such competition could be staged in 2010.

Team Judo for 2016 Olympics?

After the IOC’s rejection of a proposal for team judo events at the London 2012 Olympics, Vizer said the IJF will open dialogue with IOC officials about the possibilities for the 2016 Games.

The plan calls for seven days of competition at the Olympics featuring individual judo contests followed by a day devoted to five categories of team events.

“We hope and we fight for that,” Vizer said.

Media Invite to Tokyo Congress

The 2009 IJF congress was held behind closed doors much to the dismay of nearly a dozen Japanese journalists who had gathered at the De Doelen Congress Center hoping to report on the proceedings.

Instead, the reporters had to make do with a short briefing from Vizer at the convention center at the conclusion of the meeting.

Vizer was pressed by one Japanese reporter to explain the closed-door policy and ended up promising to allow media access to next year’s IJF congress in Tokyo.

With reporting from Mark Bisson.