Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.- (August 18, 2011) The Court of Arbitration for Sports CAS, has ordered Provisional and Conservatory Measures in favor of the Panamerican Judo Union in the case against the International Judo Federation (IJF)

The order is signed by Professor Petros C. Mavroidis, President of the Panel of the Court of  Arbitration for Sports, with offices in Lausanne (Switzerland), which states the following:

“The Swiss IJF is ordered to refrain from approving or ratifying the Challenged decision or to take any decision regarding the Continental Confederation for the American Continent at the 2011 Ordinary Congress, pending the final resolution of the present case by the CAS.”

With this decision the Swiss International Judo Federation will not be able to include, develop or make any decision against the Panamerican Judo Union at the Ordinary Congress to be held in Paris, France, next August 20th, as was planned by Mr. Marius Vizer and his followers, in complicity with the members of the Executive Committee of the illegal and dismissed Panamerican Judo Confederation.

The International Judo Federation disaffiliated the Panamerican Judo Union a second time last May 7th, 2010, which was considered as an illegal action, and thus was appealed before the Court of Arbitration for Sports.  

To support the violation of the prior decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sports, the International Judo Federation stated to have moved the offices from Dublin, Ireland, to Lausanne, Switzerland, and this way disregard the arbitral award that recognized the Panamerican Judo Union as the sole ruling organization of Judo in the American Continent.

To disregard the prior arbitral award the International Judo Federation reached out to the intolerant Mr. Mario Vázquez Raña, member of the International Olympic Committee and President of the Panamerican Sports Organization (PASO), as well as member of the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee and at the same time, President of the Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC).  

To avoid that the Panamerican Judo Union continued with its organizing activities, as well as competitive and technical activities, the International Judo Federation (IJF) as well as the Panamerican Sports Organization (PASO), currently withhold, illegally, the funds corresponding to this continental organization, with the purpose of killing it financially.

The current lawsuit held by the Panamerican Judo Union is addressed against the Swiss and Irish International Judo Federation and the dismissed Panamerican Judo Confederation.

“The countries within the world of judo have the opportunity to free themselves from the actions of Marius Vizer, who has tailored made the implementation and subsequent modification of the bylaws which are anti ethical, they violate individual rights and sever the independence of National Federations and Continental Unions”, Casanova Martinez added.

“It is precisely in this Ordinary Congress to be held in Paris, that Mr. Marius Vizer intends to modify once again the bylaws in order for the Swiss International Judo Federation to recognize the Executive Committees of the National Judo Federations taking that decision away from the independent States, which have Laws regarding sports, Ministries of Sports or National Institutes of Sports; taking that decision away from the National Olympic Committees, in violation of the legal bylaws and national constitutions, therefore assuming the right to place all of the directives to his liking, which means, that someone may go to bed being president or any other position of a  federation and when awake may find that the International Judo Federation has decided to recognize another person for the same position, perhaps for not obeying an order given by the whim of Mr. Vizer or maybe from one of the other members of his group”, Casanova Martinez remarked.

“The Panamerican Judo Union maintains its position to keep fighting in favor of the smallest and least rich countries, which have been set aside and have received pressure from Mr. Marius Vizer and the International Judo Federation, together with the big amount of athletes that are currently being victims of abuse with the high prices for affiliation and registration; the fact that they are forced to use judoguis of a specific brand; an excessive system for the Olympic Classification which favors the countries with the biggest financial resources; a refereeing system where the decisions made by the referees are no longer important but instead they follow the interest of who is in charge, and where today it can be seen how the number of European referees participating in the events have increased, to the disadvantage of Panamerica, Africa, Asia and Oceania, making believe the countries that are really organizing the world championships, which are championships with a low level of competition when not done in European countries, and to which athletes attend more out of compromise than for obtaining results, which is shown by the amount of athletes per country that participate in these events”, Casanova Martinez concluded.