English Karate Structure - KSE NGB Statement
Karate Unification Meeting – 16 September 2007
As agreed at the last inclusive meeting of Karate associations held on the 24 June, the remaining members of the Joint Working Group presented proposals to an inaugural meeting of the new governing body on the 16 September.
The Meeting was attended and supported by associations representing approximately 75,000 Karateka in England (based on the declared and audited numbers at the formation of Karate England in November 2005).
A presentation outlining the principles for establishing a new governing body was made to the meeting by John Bell on behalf of the Joint Working Group. These principles were:
- Unification of Karate through a new National Governing Body for English Karate which would have a Policy Making Council comprised of up to four representatives of each of the four main groups i.e. Karate in England, Karate Sport England, the English Karate Alliance and the English Karate Federation.
- Delegation of the delivery of the appropriate areas of NGB policy by the Council to a Technical Committee and Sport Directing Committee. A limited company would be set up as a trading entity if necessary to safeguard the new governing body.
- Self financing of the new governing body from affiliation fees - £500 per association
- which would be used to fund a small number of staff, an economic office base and an NGB-controlled website.
- Application for recognition by Sport England
- Application for membership of the European and World Karate Federations
- Strong reliance on support from volunteers from within Karate who are experts in fields such as law, finance, child protection and so on.
These principles, after a lively discussion and debate, were unanimously agreed by all present.
It was suggested that the Chairman of the British Karate Federation be approached to act as mediator/arbitrator in order to arrange an early meeting between representatives of the three groups who have already agreed these principles and the representatives of the EKF. This was agreed by the meeting.
During the discussion a number of points and issues were clarified:
- The EKF representatives resigned from the Joint Working Group established on the
24 June without any discussion with their colleagues. The KIE and KSE representatives did not leave the group but continued to work together.
- There have been repeated attempts to engage with the EKF and have a joint approach to establishing a new NGB but with no success. The door is still open and negotiations could commence immediately so that Karate can be unified.
- There is no guarantee of Sport England funding to support a new governing body, rather Sport England would welcome a self-financing governing body.
- Recognition by Sport England is unlikely if Karate is not unified.
- Grant aid from Sport England operates on a 2:1 ratio and will only be for a business plan or projects which increase participation in Karate.
- The English Karate Alliance clarified that they are not members of WKC or WUKO and fully support the new governing body application for WKF recognition. Furthermore they agreed to make the necessary alteration to their mission statement on the website to avoid any doubts
- An explanation was given in regards to the advice received from legal counsel and the Official Receivers office in relation to the prohibited use of names for the new Governing Body which are similar or that suggest association with ‘Karate England’. The official receivers office are believed to interpret ‘English’ as the same as ‘England’ and therefore ‘English Karate’ or any close derivative would not be acceptable. For this reason, a temporary name was agreed that the official receivers office was comfortable with, that being ‘New National Governing Body for English Karate’ (NNGBEK). The JWG were mandated to make an immediate application to the courts for the use of any name for the governing body that members wish to use now or in the future.
The Joint Working Group are delighted with the support given so far and would like to thank all those association representatives who attended the meeting or sent messages of support and endorsed the unification principle.
