When statutes are designed to favor incumbent leadership (as is the case of the 2006 revised Statutes) with no clear stipulations for term limits for elective and even appointive posts, political and economic corruption will be the logical conclusion.
Politics takes many forms in the WKF, all of which should be of concern to us. Most glaring is the accumulation of power through manipulation of the organization and the Statutes that govern it. This administrative cum political corruption sets the stage for all other forms of arbitrary behavior to consolidate power in a few hands and eventually reap the benefits (this may start “innocently” as a corporate credit-card without limits issued to the “unsalaried” leader to be able to respond quicker to the “needs of the organization”). The unsavory “messenger-boys” or as some prefer to call them the “Presidential hit men” usually get the “left-overs” such as free travel and room/board for important events. The money for all of this comes from the “money-mill” composed of membership dues, a non-ending and lengthy certification process of referees, vendors of equipment, and of course exorbitant athletic fees for participation at the many WKF events that are run during the entire year (approximately 120 Swiss francs per individual event and 180 Swiss francs for team events).New events such as the Children’s World Championships and future ones like the Masters Championship will only fatten the WKF central coffer even more and finance the “good life” for an exclusive leadership. In addition countries wanting to host WKF tournaments not only have to pay advance surety guarantees of Swiss francs 40K, but also 20K towards purchase of air-tickets for WKF VIPs at the discretion of the WKF President. Host countries must also provide free room and board at plush host-hotels for the Presidential entourage. With all these benefits there is no need for a salary. No wonder the great Antonio Samaranch was kind enough to “sacrifice a salary” from the IOC for so many years and brag about it. So the good-life waits for whoever controls the organization through political and administrative manipulations for the use of assets that belong to the general membership embodied by the Congress in the WKF and the General Assembly in the IOC.
Often times the game is taken to such petty extremes that important contributions of past officials and athletes are routinely expunged from current records, reminiscent of infamous past political purges of people and their history. This appears to have been the case when Espinos replaced Delcourt but there are also many other more subtle examples of partisan political behavior especially at the national federation level as well (the Gilles Cherdieu case in France, and the effort to erase my legitimate history from the annals of Malaysian WKF involvement a full 6 years before MAKAF the current national federation was established). A recent blatant case of politics at the continental level took place at the 2007 AKF Seniors in Malaysia where the WKF-recognized AIKF group of India was not allowed to participate because of the successful intervention of the de-throned rival group, using good political connections to the EC of the AKF.
History-Sociology-Politics of the World Karate Federation & Eurokumite (2009)
Source; World Karate Campaign
