Very important information about National Federations obligation as the WKF member by following the WKF status.

All WKF National Federations

Dear NF Presidents,

It has come to our attention that some of our national federations are not living up to their obligations as WKF members by following our statutes. As you are aware the WKF statutes Article 5.3 states:

«Also, the Rules and Regulations of the National Federations members shall conform to the principles of the WKF Rules and Regulations. In particular, WKF Competition Rules shall be applied in its entirety in all official national competitions titles for national championships and pertaining national titles, including modalities and categories, and the National Federations members will not schedule or participate in any international activities which contravene the aforementioned competition rules, or which fall on dates of celebration of official WKF events. »

After many years of very intensive work we have finally achieved Olympic status. However, there are still forces that have tried to stop, although unsuccessfully, our progress through court action to prevent us from achieving Olympic status by claiming that their particular style-rules should be included in the program before karate can be an Olympic sport.

It is imperative that we do everything possible to safeguard our Olympic position by not giving credibility to alternative rules. Our rules define the nature of our sport. As before expressed, this does not prevent our members to participate in style championships – but the official program of our National Federations must as a minimum be expected to follow our own statutes.

Some may think that what happens on national level is not that important. It is. You are the national representatives of the WKF. You are the representatives to our congress that decide our statutes and the guardians of their application on the national level. Together we are the face of karate to the world and only through solidarity can we continue to maintain the position of our sport and make further progress.

If you for whatever reason should feel that your national federation at present are not in compliance with Article 5.3, or for that matter any other article of our statutes, I would look forward to receiving report of your remedial action before we enter into the 2018 season.

Thank you for your attention and continued support of our WKF family of karate.

Sincerely,

Antonio Espinós

WKF President