Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 246

But it’s bigger in Iran, in Japan too,
and it’s much bigger in Indonesia,
where they have a lot of people. In
France too.”
What about in Spain?
“In Spain not so much. I think
there are a lot more people
practising karate than there are in
the Federation. A lot more.”
But not with that percentage, surely?
“No. Not the same percentage. In
Spain I think we’d be talking about
around 30% registered. I don’t think
it’s any more than that. I reckon one
on every three or four is registered
with the federation, no more. But, of
course, viewed from outside, from
other organisations, they make it
seem that the WKF only represents
one out of every four karateka in the
world, so 75% belong to them.
That’s the conclusion they draw but
it’s simply not the case.”
Indeed, to be fair we should say that
the 75% of karateka who are outside
the national sporting federations are in
different small groups rather than a
single one, which is how some people
try to paint the situation to the
International Olympic Committee and
so on.
“That’s right. Some of these
groups claim that the IOC has
recognised one in four and that 75%
of the karateka, because they’re
outside the WKF, won’t have access
to Olympic sport and so on —
making it sound as though they’re

“That avoids,
for example,
someone coming
in from outside
with 20 million,
giving money to
40 countries from
Africa to vote for
them, and then
winning”
all in one group!”
But that’s simply not true.
“Yes, but that’s what some people
are saying.”
Although this doesn’t really change
the real issue very much — all it would
change, if at all, would be the way
some of those organisations think.
What about Japan? Despite the issue
of styles, etc., it seems there are a lot
of affiliates there, aren’t there?
“Well, according to the data it
seems that about a million people
are affiliated with the federation
there.”
Years ago the Japanese federation
was also close to leaving the WKF
because of a number of problems, but

we’ll talk about that later. It’s really
been quite common for the WKFaffiliate organisation in some countries
to change. In England, for instance,
there have been quite a few changes in
this regard, and even organisations set
up deliberately for that specific
purpose.
There is one important issue
regarding the WKF Executive
Committee. Some groups have been
saying that there members, or at least
some of them, are from countries with
little weight and representation in
karate, and that you, as the President,
only need to keep them sweet by
paying for their travel, hotels and so
on, to secure their vote in support of
the decisions you make. I don’t know
them all and I’ve seen that there can
be a bit of everything. What can you
tell us about that?
“Of the members of the EC,
sixteen are elected, five correspond
to the Continental Federations, one
is currently co-opted, plus the
President. That’s more than twenty
members. The elected ones
represent the continents. From
Europe we have Finland, Norway,
Greece, Great Britain, France and
Spain, which is me. I don’t know how
important we are — maybe we’re the
scum of Europe! I don’t know how
big or small they are, but there’s a bit
of everything really. From Africa
there’s Algeria, which is a major
country for karate, Congo, Senegal