2024-01 – AGM 2023 – Resolution 3 – Consequences of non-compliance with membership requirements

Preamble

Proposal: To authorise the Board to prepare revisions to the FISTF Statutes, for consideration at the FISTF Congress to be held in 2024, and to the FISTF Official Handbook (to be adopted at or immediately after the 2024 Congress if the amendments to the Statutes are approved) to set out more clearly the consequences of failure to meet the MNA/MNAP requirements.

Background:

 At its meeting in October 2023, the Board noted that another issue arising from the MNA audit which needs to be clarified in the Statutes and/or Handbook are the consequences of failure to meet the MNA/MNA-P requirements. These are currently covered in part in the Statutes and the Handbook, but it was agreed that further clarity is required.

In the Statutes, currently the only mention of suspension of an MNA is in the context of disciplinary proceedings (Article 23).  Article 23.1 states that “Sanctions may be imposed on Member National Associations and MNAP, as well as on clubs and single players of Member National Associations & MNAPs.  The Sanctions are specified in the Disciplinary Council Articles of the FISTF Official Handbook.“

However, the Disciplinary Council Articles set out in the Handbook clearly state that “The provisions of these regulations apply to FISTF, MNAs, Clubs, Players and competition organizers in the conduct of any competition activity related to sports table football.”  In other words, the regulations and applicable sanctions are competition-related, rather than relating to failure to meet general FISTF membership requirements. They would not therefore seem to apply here.

The consequences of failing to meet some of the membership requirements were however recently spelled out in the Handbook, at Article 2.1.2(j):

(j)    Status as a FISTF MNA is valid for one sports season only and must be renewed each season. Each MNA’s status as a member of FISTF will be validated manually [NB: this should be “annually”] at the Annual General Meeting of FISTF, bearing in mind the criteria set out above.

(i)      An MNA will continue to be admitted as a full MNA if it continues to provide an updated Form 01 and Form 20 on a regular basis.

(ii)     An MNA that fails to update its Form 01 or Form 20 will temporarily lose its full MNA status. It will have no voting rights at the FISTF AGM or Congress, and all events in their territory will be suspended. To revert to full MNA status, it must complete these forms and comply with the other MNA criteria.

(iii)     An MNA that has not updated its Form 01 or Form 20 for 3 years consecutively will be downgraded to MNA-P, meaning that it will have no voting rights at the FISTF AGM or Congress. To revert to full MNA status, it must complete these forms and comply with the other MNA criteria.

This is a very useful start, however, these new clauses only relate to a failure to complete the Form 01 and Form 20 and, it could be argued, are ultra vires given there is no clear basis for temporary suspension of downgrading from MNA to MNA-P status in the Statutes for a failure to meet membership requirements.  They do not set out what the consequences of other breaches of the core membership requirements. Such as a failure to hold elections or an AGM, might be.

Any new provisions would also need to be clear on what effect, if any, the temporary suspension of an MNA/MNAP for a failure to meet membership requirements would have on individual players or clubs.  In this regard, it is noted that:

• • • on the one hand, section 2.1.5(f) of the Handbook (Administrative Sanctions for MNAs) states that “If an MNA does not update its Form 20 registration, players and clubs from that MNA may still participate in competitions. However, until the Form 20 is up to date, there will be no World Ranking points awarded to these players and clubs for any competitions. These points will be restored as soon as the data is updated by the MNAs.”;
    • whereas, on the other hand, Article 8.3 of the FISTF Disciplinary Council & Regulations set out in section 7 of the Handbook states that “The suspension of an MNA will automatically imply the suspension of all Clubs and Players affiliated with that MNA.”

The former approach (that players and clubs can continue to play, but not receive ranking points) would seem to be more appropriate for a failure of an MNA/MNA-P to meet membership requirements than the more serious sanction of suspension of all players/clubs for a breach of the Disciplinary Regulations by an MNA.

Noting that some of the possible changes needed would require a change to the Statutes, the Board agreed that the issue should be raised at the 2023 AGM for MNAs’ initial consideration and, depending on the outcomes of the discussion, some amendments could be drafted for the next version of the Handbook and any changes required to the Statutes could be considered at the Congress due to held in 2024.

(Submitted by E Kennedy, General Secretary FISTF)

Discussion: Eliot Kennedy briefly spoke to the resolution. Cameron Tucker (USA) asked whether the Board had any plan to get members which breach the membership requirements back into the process.  Steve indicated that for a really serious issue, we can call an extraordinary general meeting of FISTF to discuss it. But most issues are not so serious and are often of a more administrative nature, such as a failure to complete essential forms in a timely manner. Many of these can be fixed relatively quickly. Eliot added that his experience over the last few months was that the mere threat of a temporary suspension had been sufficient to motivate many MNA/MNA-Ps to rectify any deficiencies.

Cameron Tucker (USA) also noted that he was worried about individual players being adversely affected by the failures of their MNA, for example by not earning or losing their ranking points.  Eliot replied that in its recent redrafting of the Handbook, the Board had tried to strike the right balance. The Handbook had previously stated that where an MNA had not submitted its Form F20 registration before the indicated deadline, its clubs and individual players were actually prohibited from taking part in FISTF tournaments until this is in order. The current provision is less punitive on individuals in that it allows them to participate, but it meant to motivate the MNA (and to motivate players to request that their MNA) updates their form. In any case, as for Resolutions 1 and 2, MNAs will have a chance to comment on the draft amendments setting out more clearly the consequences of failure to meet the MNA/MNAP requirements.

Voting

AGM 2023 – Resolution 3 – Consequences of non-compliance with membership requirements

To authorise the Board to prepare revisions to the FISTF Statutes, for consideration at the FISTF Congress to be held in 2024, and to the FISTF Official Handbook (to be adopted at or immediately after the 2024 Congress if the amendments to the Statutes are approved) to set out more clearly the consequences of failure to meet the MNA/MNAP requirements.

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As per the FISTF Statutes, a simple majority vote is needed to carry this resolution.
Abstention is not a cast vote (it was voted but will not be considered in the final results)