FISTF Congress - Elections cancelled

SergLoureiro wrote:I supported the new FISTF BoB, i thought they were a group of interested persons to develop our game and drive the future on the right way... Actually, at this moment i don't believe them, i spoke a couple of times with Silvio Catania and Laurent Garnier, i really believed on their words and ideas but i think the show - off guys from "Spain" and Italy destroyed everything.

de francesco wrote:My work with this board will end Aug. 31. I'm going to do my work in Italy.
Good luck to all for the future.

Janus_Gersie wrote:A lot of things are done meanwhile in the background ...

Luis Filipe Horta wrote:
Public talk's time ended.
Now it's time for acting and build a good strategy.

CIRCULAR0034 (i) 18th August 2010
To: All Presidents
All National Federations

Dear Friends,

FISTF Congress
Why the elections are postponed?

Elections were postponed. We promised that we need to give a clear vision to this Federation. The mission to reach our goals is not easy and during our pace of work we found a number of difficulties and a number of mishaps which must be clearly addressed.

Membership
By asking a National Federation to pay €100 per year does not mean that a nation is a member. We need to have well organised National Federations and more over, at least they must have some knowledge of organisation of table football. For us, the National Federation is the most important contact, as these will then spread our intentions, communications and development proposals to the clubs and eventually to the players.

This Board was astonished to learn that on July 16th, 2010 we received an email from the INDIAN representative asking us how India can become an FISTF member. We were astonished, because during the congress held in Rotterdam (2009) India were approved members of the FISTF although in the minutes of the same congress there is no reference to that. This is a bit funny, that somebody who is recognised is asking for recognition. Proofing this, during the extra ordinary congress in January 2010, India voted in the elections held there.

Any trial of contacting them, from January 2010 till July 16th 2010 was in vain. We had no response from them, no signal of any national competition held, nothing. On their email of last month, they supplied FISTF with statutes that leave much to think about. The association, according to the certifications sent to us, was recognised in India in January 2010, so our question is easy and simple: How come in September 2009 they were accepted as a National Federation if even their state was not informed of such society?

Adding insult to injury, the Indian friends supplied statutes which clearly show that this federation was organised for the simple reason to say that we developed table football in India. In paragraph 9 of these statutes we find the following:

To start various kinds of training courses like fitness, aerobics, musical courses, self defence training, technical and non-technical courses, judges, referee courses on international and national level.
We conclude that for sure this statutes was only made up by a simply FIND & REPLACE from something else and the word TABLE FOOTBALL was eventually inserted.

Our aim of being a member nation is far from this. We cannot continue hiding ourselves at the back of our fingers by simply stating that we have a member nation. All member nations must have obligations towards the FISTF. Some of these are:

1. Statutes that reflect the sport of table football.

2. Proven record of affiliated players.

3. Proven record of affiliated clubs.

4. Organisation of a national championship on individual and club basis.

5. Promotional activity of table football among youths.

6. Promotional material such as website, flyers, etc during international tournament held.

7. Provide an insurance cover to all the activities held in their country.

We are totally in favour of development, but we cannot accept that National Federations don’t get up on their feet and do their part too. We experienced, and still not solved, a member nation which did not pay its membership for four consecutive years. We offered an option to pay this amount of money in parts, but we had no reply at all. This is what we cannot accept.
Unfortunately this was the way things were handled. It’s not how many nations we have on our books, but how much activity we are organising in the RIGHT WAY to attract new individuals to come over and join our sport. We want good development and on the right track. We need to learn from each other for sure, every nation has experienced at some time the problem of drop down in members but some managed to get out of it, others no. We need to handle this with care. We cannot just get a contact and put him/her as an association.

Accounts
Without putting any dull situation on a personal basis, we cannot stop from stating what happened with accounts in the past four years. Unfortunately a number of transactions are not backed up by any mean of receipts. This was the way FISTF was running.

The job was being done by Mr Fred Vulpes, who to my knowledge he tried to make the best out of this department. Unfortunately there was no guidance to him. When we asked questions to the former president about issues in the accounts all the blaming went towards the Finance Director, who sometimes is difficult to understand you because English is not his alternative language. Obviously I cannot blame Fred Vulpes from not being able to talk in English but I have to blame a system which the President had the right to guard and help his colleague to operate it.

In the past four years, there was a hell in the grants for the big competitions. We received no handover of receipts of who was paid and not. We only know for example that for an incident which happened in Europa Cup 2009 the President decided to give to the organiser (the President himself) an extra €250 for accidental mishap at the toilets. Moreover, there are no receipts that this money was received.

For this World Cup, the one in Germany, a decision was made to give a grant of €1500 instead of €1000. A decision, unfortunately made by three people, two of which Germans who ethically had not to vote on this issue. These were stated at the Congress in January.

Today, after a number of years FISTF has an account on its name. We were blamed at the beginning of our legislation that countries will not pay to a pay-pal account entitled to a person. Fair enough and I agree that FISTF should carry an account on its name. But I question the same persons how payment was affected before March 2010 when both bank account and pay-pal account were on behalf of an individual. I must say this is inconsistence and from day one of our legislation we started handling a situation of people who does not want to collaborate with the new Board.

World Cup
Ethically, we honoured a decision taken by the board, once again with two Germans voting for their country on the decision of the World Cup. Today, we are at the eve of the World Cup in Rain. A lot have been said about this World Cup, but I was the first one to say the decision made will be honoured. We also offered a helping hand to the organisers who still, some of them continue to look at this Board as the biggest enemy.

One of our board members went to Germany to verify a number of issues aroused by speculative people who only want to put disgrace to this sport. Laurent Garnier witnessed himself the preparations in May for the World Cup. He made his suggestions and the German organisers promised collaboration.

Here I must personally add that the reactions from the German people were good and positive to this meeting. Obviously we learned that SOME of the organising team were not happy with this board, but that was something expected.

Handover

In any democracy, when someone closes his term at an office passes over the work done in his period to the future ruling body. Something which did not happen. When I asked personally for some information I did not receive any from this information. We knew that FISTF had some contracts which give right to the FISTF and also oblige with some obligations. We are still missing agreements like:

1. Agreement with a consultive lawyer (we only have it through him)
2. Agreements made with producers
3. Agreements made on Websites, etc.

These are of vital importance. We never had even a copy of any correspondence shared or sent to anybody. I can promise that any letter issued officially from FISTF is now saved and a copy can be easily given. A database of correspondences exists and in the day this board will stop ruling FISTF all this material will be handed on there and then.

When we asked for information, we received answers full of abuse. The same abuse a number of nations had to face in the past.

Promises
We made a number of promises in January 2010. One of these is the re-structure of FISTF. We promised that we wanted to work with everyone and the result was very simple. The people who love table football and who have to their heart this sport were given the opportunity to continue their good work for table football community. But instead they preferred to start a fresh page relationship with FISTF. I personally offered to the former President to continue with his good work about results. The answer was that he wanted to be paid to offer a service in an email dated 28th January 2010.

I was the first one to stand up after the result of the election and say thank you for your work to the old board, especially to the former President. His reaction was simply to accuse me and the rest as ‘idiots’. We still believe that this person, if he wants to can be a very good asset to FISTF. But the personal issues are dominating the whole scenario and not leaving the opportunity to think freely, act as an adult and give the right helping hand to FISTF.

Congress
People told me, as I don’t follow any kind of forums that some people are astonished why the congress is postponed.

First of all, in November/December 2009 when the seven nations asked for a meeting they never asked for an election or a congress. The official reply to the promise made in Rotterdam 2009 to make a meeting for the countries (minuted also in the Rotterdam minutes) was simply that if we wanted a meeting we should call it an Extraordinary Congress, because our statutes permits only that. As if, the statutes states that the Board with the consent of the member nations cannot meet for a two-day meeting and brush ideas and perform workshops for the benefit of table football.

The only way to meet was simple. We had to accept this offer and then the FAMOUS MEETING had been recognised as EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS. Adding insult to injury, this meant also for the previous Board that since there is a CONGRESS than there should be the elections as this congress in January was to replace that one in September 2010. We had no other alternative, we accepted this and went to a bloc-vote which was proposed by the former board and eventually we were criticised about it.

The Congress was held in January and YES we promised elections in 9/10 months time. Today we clearly see that the biggest achievement of the Congress in January was the fact that for 2-days a number of countries were holding discussions about the future of table football. For sure not everything was perfect and nor it will be ever. But we have at least the honour to say that we managed to get 14 representatives to discuss table football face-to-face.

Our main intention is to give this federation a boost. We need to re-structure a number of issues. For this we need the commitment of people who really want to work. We are saying we are ready to work with anyone, interested in avoiding personal conflicts, avoiding personal issues and work for table football.

So this meeting in Germany will be a show off people who really want to work. Someone told me, that postponing elections we might risk having 6-7 people sitting for this meeting. That means that at least one out of three of our member nations (although this is to be proved that we have 18), is interested in helping and working for table football.

Decisions will keep on being difficult for some countries. Some decisions cannot please everyone. We know that any decision taken will have people supporting it and others no. We are open to constructive ideas and not only issues and declarations and abuses from people (the same 6/7 people) who continuously want to black mail people trying to do something.

For sure this board was not perfect. For sure this board had its ups and downs. These will remain even after the 3rd September. But at least this board has a vision to reach. We want to give the best opportunities to the table football community. We want to re-direct the structure of FISTF. Statutes, handbook, forms, need an upgrade. We already implemented some ideas. We know that some of our ideas were halted and squeezed in many discussions on forums. I invite the people who go to forums to come over and discuss matters face to face.

We decided upon one important rule, last January. We issued invoices with 30 days credit for every tournament, but just because some of the people who wish the best to their sport made everything possible not to collaborate on this. This was one of the rules that do not make sense. Any tournament is paid at the end of the year. We changed that, very few collaborated on this.

Communication
We must say that maybe we lacked in communications. We can also state that our vision is primarily to address national federations and then obviously it’s the federation who needs to continue the spread of news towards clubs and individuals.

I am not the person who goes round the bush. In communication probably we were not 100% efficient. The blame of this I take it personally as I feel that this is the way a board should work. I don’t mind taking the blame on anything. I just want that what we are missing now we manage to get it with the proper help and input of work from people who ARE REALLY AND GENUINALLY interested in offering a service towards table football.

The forum was closed for the simple reason that we cannot tolerate abuses. It was simply the arena for the gladiators of computers to attack and try to destroy people who are not that much computer lovers. The methods of communications today are efficient and easy to use, but they become a big enemy is misappropriated in their function. Same here I invite anyone who has ideas to come over and discuss.

We now invested in a newsletter which too many people it was a big achievement. For sure, we cannot please all the people but at least we managed to issue something which is visually more attractive. We improved on what there was and this is our idea that we want to build on the good and re-structure what is totally not functioning.

Sport Circuit
We are reading rumours of people, whose sole interest is again to throw mud at any person in front of them that last week end major at Mattersburg was probably the last one. This is another LIE which certain people want to spread to continue on their mission to put dullness on this board. These speculations were also issued in February and I remember Olivier Pere’ from Belgium coming over with almost tears in his eyes because he learned that this Board wanted to stop MONS.

I was the first to guarantee that Mons was going to be again on the calendar for the coming season (2010-2011). Same went for all the other majors. Bologna, Amsterdam and Mattersburg are already confirmed for next season.

As for other competitions, we are also receiving emails from players and kids asking whether we are going to stop Futures, Challengers and Satellites during the coming season. I am astonished when I read such lines sent to me through email from forums. My astonishment comes when I see the person posting these comments. For somebody from Belgium is very easy to post issues about futures and challengers and satellites.

The same person posting these issues was granted a number of same tournaments after an email by Olivier Pere. So, how come a Belgian Vice-President can continue to declare things which are not true and pretend that nobody respond to his dull statements?

Yes, in the next future we need to discuss the future of the sport circuit. We need to study in detail why and how some tournaments are being organised? We need to see how we can improve our big events, especially the majors! We are ready to work hand in hand with everyone to develop more ideas, such as those developed during these months thanks also to Stefano De Francesco like the Champions League and Europa League.

I must conclude that any comments are more than welcomed. I personally answer any correspondence and this can be also witnessed by people who are presently writing on forums that this board does not communicate. I took the charge of addressing all correspondences in order to be sure that anyone is handled with all fairness.

North & South
We have been accused of being too in favour of the south. This is another lie. Our decisions were based on the applications submitted. But before that I wish to tell everynation that this board, the first thing to do was to invite Belgium (a nation that if we consider only one person from there we should consider it as an enemy) to organise the Europa League. This was done in May 2010 after the Belgian President have expressed himself with me that they wish a big tournament in Brussels. I offered the Europa League 2010 prior to the application from Rome. For the Belgian Federation this was not possible to organise. Who can call this board that it’s too for the south?

Board
Finally I wish to thank all colleagues from January till now. As in any other board, there will be a number of ideas and discussions. I can assure and witness that all the discussions carried out during these months, were carried out with all fairness. There were no abuses on any country or any national representative. Discussions were always held in the right way. Yes, as in any other board there were issues which got us tempered sometimes.

There were also issues which ended up being an enigma, but the input was 100% from everyone. I would like to thank all those who participated and contributed in these months and wish them luck because there are people that from 1st September they are opting to work somewhere else in the table football community. I can assure everyone that these people will still be acknowledged for any idea, comment or critics they will pass on to FISTF.

Their input, from their experiences will be still appreciated. The board after this World Cup will include new faces. I hope there will be sitting with us people who genuinely want to work for this community as we had in these past months. I suggest to any federation that if we need to make this Federation a boost we need only to base our intentions on three main issues:

1. Vision
2. Commitment to be part of a mission
3. No hidden agendas and personal conflicts

The German Association organised for us a space to discuss. The meeting will be an informal one. I ask all federations to nominate a person who will be representing them in this meeting. Two persons per country are going to be accepted in this meeting. Accreditations for this meeting and approvals will be issued as soon as the Board receives the nominations. Forms will be supplied to member nations.

Truly in Sports

Silvio Catania
FISTF President

Thossa wrote:What FISTF defently needs is a BoD with
a president, well known and respected by the most of the community
a vice president with good contacts to the community and as advisior
a sports director like Pere or Eder
a financal director with bank expierences
a marketing manager with contacts to big business
a general secretary with sense for organisation
and a journalist as communication director with good knownledge in english language.

Federation International Sports Table Football
Salle des Ormeaux – Route de Cholet
85500 LES HERBIERS, France
secretary@fistf.info
BEL0043 22nd August 2010
To: Laurent Coucke
Belgium
Dear Laurent,
Suspension
Reference is made to a number of defamatory statements made by your Vice-President at the Belgian
Federation, Mr Vincent Coppenolle.
On the social network Facebook, Mr Coppenolle wrote the following as his status line on Friday 20th
August 2010:

The World Cup 2011 in Sicily and 2012 in Greece without even calling for candidates.
It's even worse than cancelling the next elections as a real sign of dictatorship. What
a joke. The FISTF Board is really a mafia! Their first promise was to have elections in
september. That's once again a proof they'll never keep any of their promises.

In an email addressed to you and him on Saturday 21st August 2010, which email was to invite him to
work together for this table football community he continued his statements with the following quote:

Yes, for me you are a member of the mafia. You think you are the godfather but you
are in reality the undertaker of FISTF.

I learn that from the above statements you are aware that the Board of FISTF is defamed with the
publishing of such statements to third party people, which statements contain an untrue imputation
against this Board.
As you might be aware the comprehensive definition of a defamatory in these cases is a true case of
FALSE INNUENDO.
In this case, I have no alternative than protecting this Board made up of 6 people who gave their time
and volunteer work to the table football community. I accept any sort of criticisms to any person till this
is made with respect and to the work and not to the person.
After having taken into account all this, and reading such statements, this Board cannot accept that a
member of your federation addresses the Board itself or one of its members in this way. As a right of
any member of this Board, the publication of such statements to third parties these statements give the
right to start a libel towards your Vice-President.
Moreover, in the first statement published on Facebook may I remind you that CIRCULAR0020 was the
correspondence which called for the applications for bidding process for the FISTF World Cups 2011
and 2012. His statement also declares that this Board is based on dictatorship. Something which you, as President of the Belgian Federation can confirm that it’s not true, as we were the Board who offered
the possibility to you and your Federation to organise the next Europa League competition after our
conversation in Amsterdam where you expressed that you wish to organise a big event.
Laurent, I am sorry to say that this Board needs to take action on this issue within the FISTF itself,
without excluding its rights to search advice on legal matters against Mr Coppenolle for his statements.
Meanwhile, this Board decided that Mr Coppenolle should be banned from any activity which
concerns FISTF for the next 2 years with immediate effect. Meaning:
1. This means that he cannot run any FISTF competition to be held in Belgium.
2. He cannot represent his club in any official FISTF competition or meeting.
3. He cannot represent his club on national level at the Belgian Federation.
Thus I ask you to provide another competition manager for the tournaments approved on his name.
We had no alternative than coming to this conclusion as definitely this is not the way that an official
presents himself to improve the status of the table football community. I wish also to inform you that this
Board is taking legal advice on the non-hand over of any material that concerns FISTF against the
above mentioned person.
I would like to end this correspondence, by stating that this Board has nothing against the Belgian
Federation, immaterial from which part of Europe the Board members are coming. I invite you to work
hand in hand together for the benefit of table football community.
Truly in Sports
Silvio Catania
FISTF President
All communications should be addressed to the Secretary to the Board
Please always quote the reference up here when replying to this communication.