WBF - World Bridge Federation

You may not all be aware that Ralph Cohen died yesterday at his home. Ralph had been ill for many years but had kept making remarkable come-backs from his illness. He was still a valued member of the WBF Laws Drafting Committee whose contribution was greatly appreciated. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him and we have sent a message of condolence to his wife, Joan, and family.

It was also with great sadness that we learned of the death of Amran Zamzami at the end of last year. Amran was a very good friend of the WBF and organized the World Junior Championship in Indonesia in 1995.

I would like you all to stand for a minute’s silence in their memory.

Thank you, Marc, for being with us, always as faithful and amicable.

Thank you all for your presence here today which proves your interest in the World Bridge Federation and its actions.

This is all the more important as we are about to take a new direction which could well be determining. In effect, two concepts for the role of the WBF can be examined:

The first would limit our action to the organization of World Championships and the updating of the Laws of Duplicate Bridge.

I must admit that under the shock of disappointment after Montreal when I learned that we would not be eligible for the Olympic Games despite all the efforts and investments that we had made, I was very tempted to retire under my tent and, in any case, to adhere to this minimalist programme.

In this regard, we kept our promises in organizing two Bermuda Bowls – Monte Carlo and Estoril – and an Olympiad – Istanbul – all of which were triumphs and profitable thanks to the excellent collaboration with our Treasurer, Jean-Louis Derivery, who took care of the expenses while I tried to ensure the income.

Their success was due to the quality of the sites chosen and our excellent relationships with the local organizers, as I see here in Verona too.

I am obviously very proud of this collaboration and the concept of the Transnationals, which now complete our championships in the second week, and which have proved extremely attractive not only for the international players and champions but also for many players from the host country who find these events a wonderful opportunity to pit themselves against others in a climate of convivial competition which justifies our motto “Bridge for Peace”. Our thanks go to the players for their enthusiastic response and to our Monegasque, Turkish, Portuguese and Italian friends for their support.

Thus a 4-year cycle comes to an end and, despite the difficulties, on a positive note, which shows that the World Bridge Federation could continue to survive in the same way, although without any sponsorship – which represents between US$ 400-500,000 per year - we would not be in a position to carry out the principal task of organizing these championships.

However, I do not believe that anyone would wish to see us confined to the revision of the Code.

I had hoped that this year we would have been able to propose a draft of the new Code. Unfortunately, this Herculean task is not finished but we hope that it will be for 2007 despite the size and ambition of the project on which, incidentally, I have to say that the members of the Commission have been hard pressed to reach an agreement. Nevertheless, I wish to thank them for everything they have accomplished both from a technical and humanitarian point of view.

It is here that we can gauge how difficult it is to maintain the cohesiveness of an international group when the demands, not to mention the national egos, take precedence over the greater interests. I am reminded of two examples which I feel obliged to repeat in the hope that, in spite of everything, this will lead to a greater interest on your part in the future.

The first concerns the Code of Practice for the Appeals. I sincerely believe that the World Bridge Federation has done a remarkable job on this and that the Code proves its worth during the World Championships.

However, it is rarely used at regional or national level, proving once again that conservatism is stronger.

The second concerns bridge equipment. I feel as though I am living a nightmare when in many countries (and not necessarily the smaller ones) I see that high level competitions are still being played without screens, without bidding boxes and without duplicated hands. And, over the past two or three years, we have tried to create a standard of playing cards which not only correspond to an ethical need through their symmetry, but also provide more visual comfort with the distinctive colours of black Spades, red Hearts, orange Diamonds and grey Clubs.

Here again, it is very disappointing to witness the lack of interest not to mention the lack of respect for international decisions.

It’s like playing football with different ball sizes or different pressures or even as though tennis and golf balls could be dissimilar.

Now that I believe we have managed to create a practically perfect model of playing card, licenses will be given to different card manufacturers throughout the world and in future I am counting on your to use these cards that you can also buy at the end of the championships, which I am pleased to say a certain number of federations have already done and who I thank. Imagine the new resources NBOs and the WBF might get from selling these cards to all the 60 million bridge players.

Thus, I believe that we have responded to the technical aspect, if you like, of our statutes in a relatively satisfactory way but there remains a second aspect that concerns the promotion and communication which remains very worrying.

If our Constitution in effect states that it is also the role of the WBF to concern itself with the promotion of Bridge and its development, it does not make provision for giving the WBF the resources to do so, whether statutory, financial, technical or human.

And, in this respect, I have to admit that I was obliged to make do with what I had to hand: i.e., my own personal experience (sorry!) in the field of marketing and communication and, above all, my passion for our sport.

I have never ceased – whether in my editorials for the World Bridge News, in my speeches, during my trips – to offer you my assistance to reverse a very negative and dangerous tendency in the ageing of our bridge population, the loss of our numbers and thus to an inevitable death.

I will allow myself to summarize very succinctly, once again, the actions which are essential for development and communication.

Attached is a presentation of Bridge Promotion and Development.

If the above has caught your attention, you can request copies of these documents or a CD.

But I beg you to instigate the majority of these actions as soon as possible and, most importantly, bridge in school which will only provide results in the long term hence the need to start this immediately.

But, as you can see, this is an area where we are not the decision makers but at best the promoters.

I am also divided between the despair of not having been able to encourage everyone down this route and the pride of having convinced certain others who have achieved very good results, particularly in Asia (Indonesia), in Europe (France, Poland, Italy), in Canada and with a start in China, Japan and Morocco (see attached list).

I remain at your disposal to help you, because the Executive Council has decided to re-elect me. I finally accepted, albeit rather against my will as I strongly believe that new blood is needed. But the task has to be finished.

In the worrying situation in which we find ourselves with respect to our numbers which are stagnating (see lists in annex) despite having increased the number of member countries (I would like to welcome to our ranks Cuba, Macedonia, Mongolia, Nigeria) we are obliged to propose new methods in the hope of finding solutions.

Here in Verona we have met to discuss the modifications to our Constitution that I have already suggested in the past.

I put the following proposal to the Executive Council, but no decision has yet been reached.

To reduce the number of zones from the current 8 to 5 to conform to the 5 rings of the IOC. This would result in the combining of zones 2, 3 and 5 and zones 4 and 6.

To revise the Constitution and By-Laws of the WBF as to the number of members of the Executive Council as well as the manner in which the members of the Executive Council are elected or appointed, as well as having the President elected.

each zone would have one delegate appointed by the zone. To the extent possible these delegates should be appointed for a four-year term constant with the term of the President.

an additional 12 members (of which at least four shall be female) will be elected by the Congress: of these additional 12 members, at least two should be from Zone 1, two from Zone 2, and two from the other zones. These members will serve for a four-year term, constant with the term of the President.

The President shall be elected by


i.	the Executive Council, or
ii.	the Congress

After the decision of the Congress in Maastricht in 2000, I kept my word and did not increase the dues for six years but now we are also proposing to revise the dues for 2008 onwards, as outlined in the Treasurer’s report. This is to enable us to face up to our future financial survival, which remains precarious, particularly if we lost the sponsorship and which prohibits us, in any case, from taking any form of action in the support, development, promotion for the youth, even if certain people think that each national federation should take care of this without our intervention.

Armed with these new means and relying on what has already been undertaken, the WBF could consolidate its actions for your benefit.

Our relations with the IOC are probably slightly more amicable than after the shock at the end of 2002 as we were received by the President Jacques Rogge, together with Gilbert Felli, Director of the Olympic Games and Kelly Fairweather, Director of Sports who were attentive to our Intellympiad project.

You all know obviously that we created the IMSA (International Mind Sports Association) in April 2005 in Berlin and that our colleagues from the Chess, Go and Draughts elected me as President of this institution.

The GAISF is keen to support our project and its President, Hein Verbruggen, who is also President of the Liaison Committee with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) has informed the Executive Commission of the IOC and its president of this.

It will be there, in fact, in October 2008 that we will attempt to organize the first Intellympiad where we very much hope to be able to invite the open, women’s and junior teams and provide them with free board and lodging while the seniors and mixed will face the usual charges.

At the time, we would like to see 120 countries participating and not 80 as is the case today.

Also, in order to show that we are doing our best for you, we have decided to give financial aid to a certain number of federations to send their teams to the University Championships in Tianjin, as well as a certain number to the Junior and Schools Championships in Bangkok. When I see that very large countries, not to say the largest, do not send teams to the university or junior championships, this resembles the death knell for bridge, something that I cannot accept.

In a few moments you will be seeing the presentation for Tianjin and, if you are still in a position to form a team and to cover half the costs, we, the WBF, will provide the other half.

That way, we can show the FISU – with which we have an excellent relationship – that bridge indeed is a sport that merits their support. I am pleased to thank Geert Magerman, in charge of this sector, for his efforts and he will also report to us on the Universiades.

All these international actions have only one objective: to try to assist you, at a national level, in obtaining the recognition of the authorities or the sponsors.

Encouraging the young to play bridge is so important that, here again, the WBF will help the small federations to participate in Bangkok, and maybe in Nashville 2007 and will pay the full costs in Beijing 2008.

You see, dear friends, that the coming years promise to be active and, if we can obtain your support, they will be decisive for the future of bridge, something which must be the main preoccupation for us all, as it already is with a certain number of our collaborators and colleagues who I thank very warmly.

José Damiani
WBF President
Thursday, 15th June 2006