WFCA terminates the covenant: consequences for promoters and matchmakers

This week, martial arts organisation WFCA terminated the covenant with the VA (Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit, the Dutch Martial Arts Authority). This has consequences for promoters and matchmakers working under a WFCA licence.

One federation
This year, the sector is moving from a situation with ten martial arts organisations towards one strong umbrella federation, affiliated with NOC*NSF (the Dutch Olympic Committee and Netherlands Sports Confederation). Research within the sector showed that support for this is broad. All existing organisations can join, so the WFCA has been invited as well. All existing official teams can remain active within the new structure with the same teams as they do now. Promoters can continue to work with the official team of their choice. In this way, everyone retains freedom of choice.

Under this new structure, martial arts will gain recognition, just like most sports in the Netherlands, with many advantages, such as: collective insurance for all athletes and others involved in competitions, the possibility of social rental rates with municipalities, uniform regulations, funding from NOC*NSF for athletes (including elite athletes), a transparent selection policy for international tournaments and many other matters that are currently lacking.

Nine of the ten organisations recently indicated that they will take part in joining forces. The WFCA was the only one to drop out, without clear substantiation. The VA regrets the WFCA's decision not to become part of the umbrella federation.

Covenant
Independently of this development, the VA makes agreements with all martial arts organisations each year in a covenant. One of the aims is to improve the safety and quality of events. As a result, municipalities are now much more willing to issue permits for martial arts events. The covenant is the foundation for all agreements within the martial arts sector.

It was recently announced which requirements will apply to martial arts federations next year. These are exactly the same requirements that all recognised sports federations in the Netherlands have to meet, from the Dutch draughts federation (Dambond) to the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). Financial transparency is an important part of this. The aim is to counter the influence of undeclared money and vulnerability to criminal undermining. There are also requirements for the board in order to prevent conflicts of interest. The WFCA sees the requirements now announced as grounds for immediately terminating its agreements with the VA.

Consequences
The WFCA could have chosen to terminate the covenant as of 1 January. Unfortunately, the organisation chose to do so with immediate effect. This unfortunately means that there are also immediate consequences:

– With immediate effect, the WFCA can no longer supervise events in the Netherlands. Municipalities only permit events that are supervised by a covenant partner. Organisers who try to hold events without a covenant partner ‘under the radar’ will lose their licence, and gyms will lose their Keurmerk Vechtsportautoriteit (quality mark of the Dutch Martial Arts Authority). Fighters who try to take part in bouts without a covenant partner can be suspended from all other events at all other martial arts organisations.

– For events already scheduled that were to be supervised by the WFCA, promoters must now ask a new covenant partner to act as sanctioning body.

– The promoter licences and matchmaker licences issued by the WFCA are invalid with immediate effect. As soon as promoters and matchmakers have new agreements with a new covenant partner, that partner can issue a new licence. Promoters and matchmakers do not have to go through the entire application process again for this.

– Matchmakers with licences via the WFCA no longer have access to the Fightpassport system. They must obtain a matchmaker licence from another covenant partner as soon as possible.

The VA regrets that the WFCA has pulled the plug so abruptly, which puts a number of promoters in particular under time pressure. Should this lead to problems, the VA is willing to help consider possible solutions. Questions of any kind can always be sent to info@vechtsportautoriteit.nl