"The time is right for a cohesive, modern martial arts federation"

The magazine Sport & Strategie spoke with organisational lead (kwartiermaker) Jan Willem Landror kickboxing, Thai boxing and MMA. "If you combine forces, you can simply get a lot further."

Commissioned by NOC*NSF (the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation), Jan Willem Landr dr he task of setting up a strong and cohesive organisation for kickboxing, Thai boxing and MMA. "These are sports that currently do not fall under a fully fledged sports federation", the contracted organisational lead explains. "They are supervised by the Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit (the Dutch Martial Arts Authority), because a number of problems, criminal infiltration and public order issues at events, were not being addressed properly due to the fragmentation. This martial arts authority has nine covenant partners. Within the sector they are referred to as 'federations', but they are not fully fledged federation organisations. Essentially they are teams of officials that facilitate bouts."

In martial arts, bouts are organised differently than in other sports. An independent promoter, such as the well-known Glory, organises the bouts and hires one of the federations to supervise them. Because there is no central federation, the promoters and covenant partners have room to apply their own rules, with which they try to distinguish themselves.

"Within MMA there is one clear set of rules, but within kickboxing and Thai boxing there are differences. In football, offside works the same way everywhere. In kickboxing, at one organisation you are allowed to"

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