2025-12 – AGM 2024 – Resolution 5 – The role, responsibility and obligations of Confederations

Preamble

Proposal: To create a new section in the Official Handbook which clearly describes the role, responsibility and obligations of Confederations.

Background:

Article 6 of the FISTF Statutes provides for the establishment of geographical Confederations, made up of two or more FISTF members, to “to promote relationships which they think they can usefully establish among themselves.”  In practice, there are confederations for Europe, Asia, North America and South America.

The Statutes also provide that:

• no rules or statutes of a Confederation may be contrary to those of FISTF, and that the statutes of the confederations must be based on FISTF Statutes and are to be submitted to FISTF; and
• In the case of disagreement in the interpretation of the FISTF Statutes, the FISTF Official Handbook, the FISTF Tournament Organisation Handbook, or the FISTF Sports Playing Rules, and those of a confederation, those of FISTF have priority.

Unlike for many other areas of the Statutes, there is however no additional detail provided in the Official Handbook regarding the role, responsibilities and obligations of Confederations.

The absence of a clear definition of the responsibilities and areas of competence of Confederations has led to overlapping roles and, in some cases, complete independence in determining tournament formats and qualification criteria. These practices are not always aligned with FISTF’s philosophy and guidelines.

Defining the scope, responsibilities, and obligations of Confederations within the Official Handbook will ensure consistency, avoid conflicts, and maintain alignment with FISTF principles across all regions.

To ensure consistency and clarity of approach across the Confederations, the Board believes that more detail needs to be including in the FISTF Handbook on this important subject.

If this is agreed in principle, the Board will draft additional text, to be included in the Official Handbook for the 2026-27 season, for MNAs’ consideration as part of the preparation of the Handbook

(Submitted by A Ciccarelli, VP Media and Communications, FISTF)

Voting

AGM 2025-12 – Resolution 5 – The role, responsibility and obligations of Confederations

Vote: To accept or reject Resolution 5

> I agree to authorize the Board to create a new section in the Official Handbook which clearly describes the role, responsibility and obligations of Confederations for MNAs’ consideration as part of the preparation of the Handbook for the 2026-27 season.

> I do not agree to authorize the Board to create a new section in the Official Handbook which clearly describes the role, responsibility and obligations of Confederations for MNAs’ consideration as part of the preparation of the Handbook for the 2026-27 season.

> I abstain

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As per the FISTF Statutes, a majority vote of 66.67% is needed to carry this resolution.
Abstention is not a cast vote (it was voted but will not be considered in the final results)

Discussion of Resolutions 3, 4 and 5

Andrea Ciccarelli spoke to Resolutions 3, 4 and 5 together, given they are closely related.  Andrea said that, given the lack of detail in the Official Handbook about the role of Confederations in the Official Handbook, the proposed resolutions were all aimed at clarifying the role of Confederations and making the division of responsibility between Confederations and FISTF clearer.

Yves Peremans (BEL) asked whether there were any examples of problems having occurred over the last season. Andrea referred to the format used for the recent European Continental championships, where teams which had been in the same group had met again much sooner in the knockout rounds than they would have had the normal FISTF formula been applied.

John Zammit (Malta) said that it as important that Confederations should have the power to apply their own rules and procedures. FISTF had been happy to create Confederations and to have them run Continental competitions and they should be given the autonomy to do so. If FISTF were to dictate everything, people won’t want to join or help run the Confederations. Andrea Ciccarelli responded that the goal of the resolutions was not necessarily to limit the Confederations – in fact, they might be given more responsibilities in some areas – but to clarify the responsibilities of FISTF and the Confederations.  Steve Dettre added that FISTF events should be run in basically the same fashion around the world, to ensure consistency.  He noted that prior to the confederations being stablished, the FISTF Board had spent a huge amount of time discussing the Europa league and other competitions, however he agreed with Andrea that we can’t let confederations run completely “off piste” and consistency and clarity is important. It will be very interesting to hear the views of the European Board and European MNAs on this issue.