The elections to become president of the French Federation of Judo, Jujitsu, Kendo and associated disciplines (FFJDA) began this Thursday and lasted three days. Stéphane Nomis, outgoing president, wants to return for a new mandate. He is facing Occitan Frank Optiz, who requested a debate via social networks. It didn’t happen. Overview with the two candidates, joined by RMC Sport, on this new type of ballot where each club will have one vote.
- Assessment of Stéphane Nomis’s first mandate
Stéphane Nomis: “When I took over the Fédé (in November 2020), we had 350,000 licensees: we should pass 600,000 this year. This field had been in loss for 12 years. We have exceeded the previous figures. We have tried to improve the image of judo through communication, and it worked too. We took the Fed with -10 million euros, and a deplorable report from the Court of Auditors We rectified the situation. deficits, we went from 25 million to 40 million in budget. We didn’t want to be dependent on licenses and the State. We diversified our income to be an autonomous federation, or as autonomous as possible. This money allowed us to give incredible amounts to clubs and committees, we redistributed more than 21 million euros to clubs and committees.
Frank Opitz: “The French Judo Federation is moving towards a mercantile model where profitability takes precedence over projects, particularly educational ones. It is rather an entrepreneurial model. I defend an associative model, I defend a federation oriented towards the clubs, which serves the clubs and not who uses the clubs. In current politics, everything is done to make money. This money is taken from the clubs and the territories, it is a model in which I do not identify. committees are in deficit because they hosted the Champions’ Route (an event where former and current members of the French team travel, editor’s note), where the profit margin of the federation is 40%. We wonder if. the leagues are there to supply the headquarters of the federation.”
- Training, the Dojo Academy and teacher remuneration
FO: “Training is essential, but we must consider it as an investment for the future. We must train our actors. They have a mission to transmit our discipline. The Dojo Academy has set up a system where profit margins are important. Many people do not do so, because they have to finance too much. Where the point is critical is the training on violence. can’t make money on this violence training. I think it should be provided to as many people as possible so that there is maximum vigilance, and that it should be put online for free. recommendation of the ethics committee. We are the only federation to charge for this training, it is not ethical. I also want to try to provide a supplementary pension for the teachers. sale of the Villebon-sur-Yvette complex If we sell it, a part will go into a fund backed by a bank and each teacher will provision a fund where there will be the bank’s interests. It will give him a supplementary pension: it’s the pension fund system.”
SN: “We have dealt with violence well. We have fewer cases. We have put in place compulsory training, even for club presidents. A whole system to have the cleanest sport possible. We want to support training. We trains between 800 and 1,000 people per year We also want to help the clubs find the means to pay their teachers. The clubs sometimes cannot find teachers because they only offer them 300 or 400 euros per month. three or four lessons… We are in the process of finding solutions with companies, to have better paid teachers. We are in the process of helping the clubs to the tune of 400,000 euros, but we must go further. far. It’s one of our priorities: if we have a second mandate, I will be able to finalize what we would be interested in is developing judo health. in the morning, being in an EHPAD, a company We have done several tests, it works well and we will try to develop it.
FO: “I wonder what it is for. It is the president’s toy. It was intended for the judokas to have remuneration. Either they are not paid, or they receive 600 euros per year, I don’t know who can live with that. It’s an entertainment, there are very few judokas from the French team participating, little public or media and it costs 625,000 euros. France by mixed club team, like in the Olympics. This will be an open and free championship. Rather than taking care of the thirteen franchises of the Pro League, I prefer to take care of the 5,000 other clubs in our federation.
SN: “We didn’t get the wrong product on the Pro League, it’s moving forward. There has never been a French championship broadcast free of charge. There were as many viewers as at the Paris tournament. It’s up to us to continue to develop it, people like this format. Mixed teams are on the rise, but we have not yet found the exact model for the clubs. talked about the Judo Pro League with the International Federation (IJF). The IJF sees that we are a pioneer, that we are trying to do things, they see the importance of France. We are the biggest federation in the world. , we are the most influential, we have results everywhere. We are the continuation of Jigoro Kano (founder of judo), I am the “grandson” of Jigoro Kano. When we develop dojos and children, we change things. lives.”
- The steps they want to take
FO: “We want to make the functioning of the federation more transparent with greater room for the opposition. This is a missed opportunity when it was asked of the board of directors, when there is no proportionality to the federal board of directors, we are committed to ensuring that major commissions like the financial commission revive. hotline, one system among many others. How to support leaders who do not always have the time and not necessarily the skills? Being a volunteer is not an exemption from responsibility. has professionals who can help with grant files, legal aid… Set up a telephone call to answer simple, technical or simple legal elements, and if the question is a little detailed, we undertake to do so that there be a response as quickly as possible.”
SN: “We created more than 400 dojos as part of the “1,000 dojos” operation. Even the IJF spoke to us about it: they don’t understand, no country can do that. We put in the skills. There are 5,000 clubs. The next four years, we will have made 1,000 dojos and we will have changed the dojos of 25% of the clubs, it will be enormous. I also want to change the software of the clubs. which would allow clubs and volunteers to be more autonomous and better. We have improved, but that would also allow us to take it a step further.
