PRESIDENT S REPORT TO CONGRESS Maastricht, The Netherlands Wednesday, 30 th August 2000

Transcription

1 PRESIDENT S REPORT TO CONGRESS Wednesday, 30 th August 2000 Presidents Delegates Ladies and Gentlemen, My thanks to all of you who are attending this Congress today. Before I go any further, I would like to say a word about our late President of Congress, Bob Howes. As you are no doubt all aware, Bob died just over a year ago. For many years he was General Counsel to the WBF, a role he filled with brilliance, humanity and humour, and he also held the post of President of Congress for the latter years of his life. He was a great friend to the WBF and will always be remembered with great warmth by all who knew him. Welcome to Maastricht, where I hope you will have a very enjoyable stay, thanks to the hospitality of our Dutch friends. I would have been particularly happy to welcome our friend, Marc Hodler, who is one of the most important personalities in the world of sport and who has helped us enormously in our progress towards Olympism. Unfortunately, I received a message yesterday in which he apologized for not being able to come here as he had to leave early for Sydney. However, he assured me of his continued support and encouraged us to start working right away towards Turin You may also have seen in the Daily Bulletin the message from the IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who sent us his best wishes for our World Championships. 30 th August 2000 Page 1

2 That is why I cannot hide my disappointment at the number of NBOs that are absent nor at having lost about 12 countries who were initially registered but were obliged to withdraw due to financial problems, giving me even more reason to promote my proposal of a programme of solidarity. Nor will I hide my astonishment at the absence of so many women s and University teams from the large and rich countries. At a time when we are cooperating closely with the IOC and the FISU (International University Sports Federation), the lack of interest shown by a number of federations is unbelievable and very sad. Indeed, it should be clear that we, in the WBF, are working for you the NBOs, the bridge players and the champions. We have defined a strategy for the development and the promotion of our game, which has been accepted and of which I am more than happy to report the recent evolution. ***** Since we met in Lille, perhaps the most important event in the history of bridge occurred: Bridge is a sport Bridge is a sport and, as such, your place is here like other sports, declared the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, on 7 th September 1998 at the Olympic Museum at the Opening of the 1 st IOC Grand Prix for Bridge. Believe it or not, we decided to work very hard to get these words into a legal written form. And, on 20 th June 1999, we received a letter accepting the WBF as a Recognized International Federation, pursuant to Rule 29 of the Olympic Charter. 30 th August 2000 Page 2

3 For me personally, it was the achievement of a dream than began 20 years ago in Lausanne, when I became an Executive Member of the EBL and the WBF boards. I recalled this ten years later during the European Promotion Week, and again in 1993 when making an approach to my friend, Marc Hodler, 1 st Vice President of the IOC, who, later on, was very pleased to follow the process engaged by the Sheikh of Kuwait, at the request of Mazhar Jafri, who effectively managed to obtain the first recognition for the WBF as a Recognized Organization. Still, it was crucial to obtain this new statute, as it clearly means that bridge has become a sport, since we are now on the same level as golf, rugby, squash, karate or polo, which are recognised as sports but are not yet admitted into the Olympic Games. We now belong to some International Associations of Sports and will be part of the Olympic Congress. Our logo and our flag are included in IOC publications and displays. We have made a double or triple jump as we now appear in the middle of the IOC Directory, instead of being on the last page. The Olympic Charter states, in its fundamental principles, that: Olympism is a philosophy of line, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of bodies, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles. It was very important to have the confirmation that an intellectual game like bridge (or chess) can be considered as a sport which gives us some hope of becoming an Olympic discipline as opposed to the sports described under article which states: Sports, disciplines or events in which performances depend essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable, (i.e. in the Olympic Games) although they are recognized as International Federations. But our only chance is to participate in the Winter Games, because the Summer Games are totally full. As you have seen, golf, for example, is not in the Olympic Games. 30 th August 2000 Page 3

4 However, we must now obtain the modification of Article 9.4 of the Olympic Charter which states that: Those sports which are practised on snow or ice are considered as winter sports. The IOC will have to modify this article prior to being able to accept us as an International Olympic Winter Sports Federation, which is the final step and, of course, our ultimate wish. We had to accept the IOC conditions and adapt our constitution to comply with their requests concerning doping and the Court of Arbitration. We are to stage a great event in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne the IOC Grand Prix which was held for the second time in 1999 with the sponsorship of the Angelini Group every year prior to 2002, when we hope to organize an attraction match in Salt Lake City. For all of this, we need to lobby everywhere with the people in charge of the IOC and the media. Unfortunately, this new recognition does not oblige the National Olympic Committees to accept our own NBOs. Nevertheless, I am sure it will help many of you and, in fact, quite a few national federations have already been admitted into their National Olympic Committees or at least improved their status. You must understand that only the recognized International Olympic Sports Federations (summer or winter) belong to the National Olympic Committees on a mandatory basis. This is obviously because the available funds (I am talking here about the public subsidy) have to be shared among all the member federations. In order to succeed in being officially accepted into the Winter Olympic Games in 2006, we will need all the support we can get, and I am particularly pleased to mention the help received from the Chinese authorities, as well as that of Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad, President of the Asian Olympic Committee, and many other people throughout the world. Our presence in the IOC was reinforced by our adhesion to ARISF and GAISF and, consequently, we were invited to participate in the main IOC meetings, which allowed us to lobby in favour of our two goals: to gain entry into the Olympic Games and to facilitate the way for our NBOs to become members of their national Olympic Committees. 30 th August 2000 Page 4

5 On March 6 th 2000, in Paris, I attended The World Conference for Women and Sport and met the IOC President, Juan-Antonio Samaranch; the French NOC President, Mr. Serandour; and Mrs. Anita Defranz, Vice President of the IOC and a member of the US Olympic Committee. I must emphasize here that I, personally, am in favour of strengthening and encourage women s participation in our activities and I hope that the Women s Committee, chaired by Anna-Maria Torlontano, will prove effective in this field. At the same time, our friend, Marc Hodler, was in Salt Lake City and I am sure you are all aware that he publicly declared in favour of bridge by saying that the brain has as much importance as muscles, and of the subsequent coverage in the media. It is obvious that our action has had a very important impact in the American media. Even though we get negative articles from time to time, I have the feeling that bridge is waking up in North America with articles in the newspapers and TV interviews. In any event, I am very happy to thank the members of the bridge community in Utah for their dynamic pressure on the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee. For the time being, it looks as though the President of this Committee, Mr. Romney, is very reluctant both for financials reasons and due to lack of space to accept anything else into the programme. However, I again met Marc Hodler in Lausanne and he remains optimistic, especially if we are prepared to meet our own expenses and reduce the number of participants. I made it clear to him that this would depend only on the space available. We would even be prepared to hold a single exhibition match between two teams in a suitable place with access to a theatre, as we would want to show our bridge-vision. Marc is still working on this and will keep me informed. He may also ask me to go to Salt Lake City with him. On 10 th March 2000, I was in Lausanne to discuss the use of the US$ that the IOC is prepared to donate to the WBF. We finally agreed with Gilbert Felli, IOC Director of Sports, that this money should be used for the launch of Zone 8 in Abidjan Ivory Coast which officially took place on 30 th May th August 2000 Page 5

6 On 23 rd March 2000 I was in Rome with Gianarrigo Rona meeting with the General Secretary of the European Olympic Committee (and former president of the Italian Olympic Committee), Mario Pescante. I would like to congratulate Gianarrigo on getting a page of publicity into the official magazine of the European Olympic Committee. We had a very pleasant meeting; Mr. Pescante was very helpful and explained the importance for us, and particularly for me, to be present on every possible occasion at IOC meetings. As he pointed out, it is important to show the same face as often as possible. He believes that it will be difficult for us to get into the Games and recommends that we lobby everywhere we can think of. Even though it is too late for us to be incorporated officially into the programme of the Mediterranean games to be held in Tunis in 2001 we can try to have a bridge vision show, which is really our showcase. Mr. Pescante was very supportive of the Italian Federation and thinks that it is very important to knock on the doors of the every National Olympic Committee. 15 th April 2000 in Athens. Mr. Nikolaou, President of the Greek National Olympic Committee, was present, with his wife, at the gala dinner of the Generali World Masters, which was a great success, particularly from a media point of view with a great deal of coverage on TV. It was a perfect example of the benefits that a national federation can gain from our action vis-à-vis their National Olympic Committee and sponsors, since the Greek authorities, as well as Generali Greece and many journalists, were all present. 19 th /20 th April 2000 I was in Lausanne again for the ARISF general meeting, chaired by Mr. Ron Froehlich from the US. Golf, rugby, karate, squash, etc as well as chess and bridge are members of this Association, which accepts as members those Recognized International Sports Federations that are not in the Olympic Games. The meeting was very pleasant but it showed the difficulties faced by these great sports to gain admittance into the Games, although some of them have already spent a fortune trying. We had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and I believe that the other members were impressed by our organization, as well as by the FIDE presentation. 30 th August 2000 Page 6

7 It is evident that we have a common destiny with chess and that was the conclusion of our meeting, when to decided to work together to achieve our goal. FIDE is a bigger organization than ours in terms of numbers 159 countries and 20 million competitive players (most of them, of course, being school children). FIDE has an office in Lausanne with 5 permanent staff and another in Moscow with 10, and a yearly budget of US$ 1.5 million, excluding the championships. They have already organized a World Championship in the Olympic Museum and held another big event in May. Marc Hodler and Emmanuel Adokiye Onenkin, Executive Director of FIDE, were grateful to me when I was able to introduce them. I believe it is vital for bridge at least to appear to be as important and as well organized as chess. I also attended the dinner given by the IOC for the International Federations who were present for the Summer Games, as well as the meeting held the following day in the auditorium of the Olympic Museum, at which all these federations were present. I confess that I was very proud for bridge to be there among all these big federations, especially as I was able to meet Mr. Blatter, President of FIFA (football/soccer). I also met President Samaranch and many other important members of the IOC. 3 rd May We met Mr. Henri Serandour, President of the French National Olympic Committee, who invited the President of the French Bridge Federation, Mr. Bernard Liochon, and myself to lunch. Mr. Serandour confirmed that the French Bridge Federation will be accepted into the French National Olympic Committee. This is very encouraging news for many countries. In the meantime, I received a letter from Argentina confirming their admission as a member of their National Olympic Committee. About 10 other of our NBOs have also obtained the same result. This is great news and shows that our work is rewarded. 30 th August 2000 Page 7

8 18 th /19 th May Following my trip to Montreal, where George Retek and I met the Mayor, the President of the Tourism Office, the Montreal Bridge League and some big potential sponsors, we went to Quebec for the IOC Congress on Sport for All. Again, it was amazing to witness the warm welcome we received and we had the opportunity of meeting the Chairman of the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Minister of Sport. We were able to have further discussions with Gilbert Felli, IOC Director of Sports, as well as with the two candidates for the next presidency of the IOC, Dick Pound from Canada and Jacques Rogge from Belgium. We also met many people from various countries and my strong recommendation is that the time has come for Canada to apply to become a member of its own National Olympic Committee. I am quite optimistic of the outcome as everybody was very impressed by the size of the World Bridge Championships that we are going to organize in Montreal in Also, many people now better understand who we are. Since then, we have been accepted as a member of the GAISF which will meet in Monaco in October We can apply to participate in the World Games which are held the year after the Summer Olympics although it is too late for us to participate in the next World Games in 2001 except as an exhibition match again. However, we can certainly participate as an official sport in These games are for those who are not in the Olympic Games. We will immediately start working towards Turin in In the meantime, I would recommend to all of you to start lobbying your Committee members or events in your Zonal area. I really believe that we can push bridge towards a new dimension, en route for Turin For that, we need more dynamism and you yourselves need to get out there and lobby. I am here to help. Don t keep a low profile for bridge in your country be proud of being part of a large international community which uses modern technology and is part of the Olympic family. 30 th August 2000 Page 8

9 ***** On our side, we have done part of the job by revising the Constitution and By-Laws so that they are at least in accordance with the IOC requests, especially with the regulations relating to anti-doping and the Court of Arbitration. I would particularly like to thank our General Counsel, Jeff Polisner, and the Advisory Committee who worked closely with me on this for a great job. As we have not received any objections from NBOs concerning this revised Constitution and By-Laws, apart from some constructive observations from India, we consider that the proposal has been accepted and that you will vote in favour of their revision in a few minutes. However, I believe we still need to modernize our organization, mainly on three points: 1. Our zonal geographical structure is not terribly satisfactory. We need to check, for the future, whether the five Olympic rings (zones) would not be better, particularly from a financial point of view as the zonal Olympic Committees will also distribute certain grants. After many discussions with zonal representatives, I have to admit that no one seems very keen on the idea of changing the present situation, which is a pity. However, until such time as we can prove that a change would have a significant financial benefit for our Zones or NBOs, I believe that the WBF can survive with its eight zones. These include the new African Zone that was officially launched on 30 th April in Abidjan, where I met with Minister of Sport who promised to introduce bridge into schools. This Zone already has 12 countries (Botswana, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Reunion, South African, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe) and another 12 potential new countries (Gabon, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal). As mentioned earlier, the WBF transferred to this Zone the grant of $ and, thanks to the Société Générale Bank, we will give them a further Fr in their bank account. 30 th August 2000 Page 9

10 We wish good luck to this new Zone and hope that they will really participate actively in our world championships. Unfortunately, this leaves Zone 4 with only 12 countries, with a few potential additions, now that the African countries have been transferred to Zone 8. Despite our own desire and belief that there should be a fairer balance between Zones 4, 6 and 7, Zone 6 has expressed the wish to maintain the status quo and is working to recruit Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam as new members. We do not want to impose anything on any Zone that they do not freely accept. The same situation occurs in Zones 3 and 5 who also prefer to maintain the status quo, and again in Zones 1 and 2. Nevertheless, we need to give careful consideration to the purpose of having Zones: political organization to send representatives to the WBF Executive; geographical structure to organize zonal championships and send qualified teams to world championships; and finally, the financial melting pot. In our view, we believe that we can accommodate our own organization with its present zonal structure. 2. However, we also need to pay special attention to a more democratic process for electing the members of the Executive Council of the WBF and the main officers President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer and Secretary. According to other comparable international federations, the president of each zone (8 in our case) is automatically a member of the board and the other members can be elected by the Congress with a quota per zone. The President and the officers are elected by the Congress. Personally, I would add that certain bridge VIPs could be nominated by the President and the board to add their experience and expertise. In all of this, one might also wonder whether it wouldn t be normal for there to be a scale to the number of votes according to the number of 30 th August 2000 Page 10

11 members in any country, which is already in force in Europe incidentally. All the above ideas will be studied by an ad hoc committee and any recommendations will be submitted for your approval in Montreal. Any suggestions you may have will, of course, be very welcome. 3. Finally, of course, the third important change is the dues structure. To fully understand the proposal, it must be understood by everyone that we are talking here, first of all, of the means for development and promotion and, only after, of course, to contributing to the resources of the WBF itself. I believe that I have a certain amount of experience in the field of promotion and development, which are my passions, and I have always worked towards this end. As Club President from 1972 to 1975, I more than double the number of members from 90 to 220. During my term as District President from1975 to 1978, we went from 400 to 1200 members and, as President of the French Bridge Federation from 1978 to 1983, we increased our membership from 18,000 to 44,000. Under my presidency from 1987 to 1995, the EBL also went from 240,000 to 370,000 members. It seems to be as sad fact of life nowadays, that membership appears to be stagnating everywhere. Although I took up my pilgrim s staff nearly 6 years ago as President of the WBF in order to convince the federations that they should give priority to development using, among other tools, the Guide that I wrote in 1989 and completed in 1993 (a copy of which is still at your disposal), the number of members has not changed very much. It was for this reason that I first raised the possibility of the dollar per member subscription at the Congress in Rhodes in 1996 and then again at the Congress in Lille in I clearly indicated at both these Congresses that I would ask the Executive to vote for this new structure of $1 per member from 2002 so that funds would be available to promote bridge throughout the 30 th August 2000 Page 11

12 world, to enhance its image and develop its membership and infrastructure. I prepared the ground in this way in order to leave the national federations ample time to prepare themselves for this measure which, far from affecting their budget, should, on the contrary, give them additional funds. Not only did I presage this six years ago but I have also been more democratic that I was obliged to be. In fact, this measure does not need to be approved by Congress. Nevertheless, I consider it courteous to request a vote, since I believe and trust that a majority of federations will have the vision to understand what we are trying to achieve for bridge and that the implementation of our aims requires funding. In the Guide for development strategy, I included a passage on the recognition of the sport of bridge by the IOC. I am obviously proud that we have finally achieved this recognition. We have had to fight hard for it to become a reality. Until now, we have been able to achieve our aims within our own budget, although we have already spent more than US$ on the IOC activities as I have managed to integrate sponsorship funds. I have given my time freely but we still do not have any proper structure. However, I do not believe that this is the normal way and I am certain that to take this aspect of our development further will require funding through subscription levels such as those being proposed. We live in a very commercial world of spectator sports where we are not talking of spending one dollar but millions of dollars a year. With sports like chess, as mentioned earlier, the international federation has its own offices and staff in Lausanne and Moscow, while the WBF relies on the goodwill of its President and Officers and manages with parttime staff and the assistance of volunteers. With the proposed funding, we would be better placed to enhance the image of bridge as a sport through the use of professional promotional material as well as by the full and proper use of the media. 30 th August 2000 Page 12

13 All sorts of less intelligent games than bridge are rapidly developing through Internet, and although bridge has a presence on the Web, it is not fully organized or integrated. This is a question that we need to consider carefully because we not only need to develop our clubs and NBOs we must also attract young people, something that is no longer happening anywhere. I believe that the Internet can give us the means of doing this but, as I am sure you will appreciate, this is not an inexpensive procedure. I am quite convinced that it is an excellent way in which to promote our aims, but only if it is undertaken in a professional manner, and this is an area for which I would like to see such funds used. For all the above reasons, it is a true contract that I wish to sign with the federations because this dollar will, in part, go towards the needs set out above, and will also come back to the NBOs for a development programme. It will be thanks to this dollar that each NCBO will have the opportunity to generate the funds and the will to develop within a coherent worldwide movement using approved methods. This is what the IOC practices with the international federations, as you have seen in the example of the grant assigned to the new African Zone. I do not believe that I am a dreamer (I think everyone recognizes that I made bridge into a real business organization), but I am proud of certain successes and of the transformation of bridge s image which we are accomplishing. Those who wish to follow us will share the fruits of these successes. If the accountants succeed, then I am afraid that we are heading towards the demise of bridge as we know it. It is already the case for the juniors, which is unacceptable as this presages certain extinction. Nevertheless, I believe that true democracy is to be found in the art of persuasion. If I am unable to convince you on this question, it signifies the refusal of our existence (although I am sure the rubber bridge 30 th August 2000 Page 13

14 players will be happy to know that bridge has become a sport and may soon be an Olympic discipline). I find it difficult to believe that the Western countries will truly find such a subscription onerous; furthermore, I have the utmost confidence that, with such funding as will be generated, we can work towards the future of a great sport. Finally, I would add that my final proposition is that the WBF membership dues will be US$ 0.50 per member (Juniors aged 20 or under 1 st January are exempt), effective January 1, The minimum annual fee will remain at $200 for each National Bridge Organization. I would also strongly recommend that each NBO collect $1 from each member in order to meet the new membership dues and to have something in reserve for themselves for the promotion of bridge education. I am sure that while awaiting a final decision on the entry of bridge into the Olympic Games themselves, many NBOs will benefit from the support and financial aid of their own Olympic Committees, thanks in part to all we have already accomplished. In the meantime, we will be collaborating with the NBOs on the following important projects: Recognition of our NBOs by the NOCs and acceptance into the Olympic Games Assist junior bridge and junior development Develop teaching programmes Provide Tournament Directors and teacher training sessions Subsidize bridge programmes in least developed countries Help bring new countries into the WBF Provide subsidised accommodation at the tournaments Improve the bridge administration infrastructure Introduce bridge to the school systems With the help of our NBOs, these projects will became reality and will help bridge grow and prosper in this new millennium. 30 th August 2000 Page 14

15 This will call not only for solidarity but also for efficiency on a global scale which is a condition sine qua non if we are to fulfil our objectives. Bridge players worldwide can and must be proud of the enhanced image of their favourite sport and of their champions and, by extension, of their own personal image as players. And no one can possibly imagine that we are going to find the resources for this through sponsorship alone. It must be absolutely clear that no sponsor is going to have confidence in people who are not able to afford to pay $1 for the sake of their own organization. You now have to determine this for yourselves and, in all conscience, make a public vote after hearing the Treasurer s report. Our future action will be decided by the result of this vote. If, as I strongly hope, you will give me your confidence, we will also be able to organize The World Bridge Promotion Day each year on the occasion of a worldwide simultaneous with the participation of the bridge players and the champions everywhere, in every single club and on Internet, with the clear goal of attracting new club members. I will give further details on the organization of the event later on if the proposal is accepted. ***** Internet will clearly accompany the development of bridge. As promised, we now have available a worldwide teaching programme for teachers and pupils in both English and French. Our thanks for this must go to some good friends of mine the sponsors Bollore Group, Odile Beineix, the French Bridge Federation and Anna Gudge. It will not be too difficult to translate this programme into different languages, and it will be very useful for many NBOs to start teaching bridge in regular school or even in club schools. You will be able to watch the programme here, and we strongly recommend that you do so as it has been working successfully for many years. 30 th August 2000 Page 15

16 In addition, we have been looking closely at television through the Internet as we truly believe that this media will serve bridge. Again, we have a crew from Canal Web working here and we hope that in less than a year, the technology will have improved the quality of the pictures and will enable access to the service through the television directly and not through the computer. There is another field in which I believe we have made significant progress. In Lausanne last year, during the IOC Grand Prix, I asked Joan Gerard, Bobby Wolff, Ernesto d Orsi, Mazhar Jafri, Jens Auken, Ton Kooijman and Jeffrey Polisner to meet under my presidency with John Wignall as Chairman and Grattan Endicott as Secretary, to revise the appeals process. The result of that is the Code of Practice that this group produced and which I am sure will be of tremendous help for all of you. I am hopeful that we can all cooperate for the best of bridge. It is too soon to revise our four-year cycle of championships as we only plan to be in the Winter Olympic Games in Turin in This is why I would appreciate receiving candidatures for the organization of the following events: 2003 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup and the Transnational Open Teams (although Morocco or Brazil are thinking of organizing it) 2004 World Team Olympiad (Istanbul, Turkey has already applied but this is still open) 2005 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup and the Transnational Open Teams 2006 World Bridge Championships Thank you all very much for your attention and the decision that you are going to make for the good of bridge. José Damiani President 30 th August 2000 Page 16