VA looks back with satisfaction as it ends its POS membership

The Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit (the Dutch Martial Arts Authority) has been a member of the Platform Ondernemende Sportaanbieders (POS, the platform for commercial sports providers) for almost five years, to its satisfaction. Now that the role of representing the interests of martial arts entrepreneurs will pass to the NVB (the Dutch martial arts federation), the VA is ending its POS membership.

The POS was founded in early 2020 to give sports entrepreneurs a voice. Sports umbrella organisation NOC*NSF has traditionally represented the interests of club-based sport, but roughly half of the Netherlands now takes part in sport outside club structures. These participants are served by entrepreneurs running, for example, a fitness centre, climbing wall, golf course, riding school or martial arts gym. The POS soon proved to be a welcome addition to the sports lobby in the Netherlands.

As a regulator, membership of the POS was not self-evident for the Vechtsportautoriteit. In the absence of an umbrella federation able to represent the interests of martial arts entrepreneurs, the VA temporarily took on this role. This led to very fruitful cooperation, for instance during the coronavirus period. The POS played a crucial role in keeping the closure of martial arts gyms and events to a minimum, within the limits of what was responsible.

With the establishment of the NVB, there is now an umbrella federation that will take over from the VA in representing the interests of martial arts entrepreneurs. Now that the VA is focusing more explicitly on its supervisory task, this is a logical moment to end its POS membership. The VA is grateful to the people at the POS for the good cooperation and trusts that the organisation will continue to represent the interests of martial arts entrepreneurs with conviction.