52nd Edition of Geneve CHI hosted the IJRC General Assembly. It was the first confrontation table for International Riders after the FEI General Assembly that took place in November in Istanbul and brought out many relevant points concerning the show jumping asset.
Around 50 people attended IJRC General Assembly that was chaired by President Cayetano Martinez de Irujo.
After welcoming riders, organizers and FEI representatives, IJRC President went straight to the focal point of the Assembly and expressed his concern about the very delicate position the IJRC has been put in following Istanbul’s meeting.
«Rules have changed – he declared – but it is not defined which way they’re going at the moment. The general feeling is that the IJRC has been put a step behind as far as representativeness of the riders go even if we’ve been verbally reassured, in a phone call by HRH Princess Haya, this is not the case. In the past, IJRC had fully recognition by FEI and this will not apply in the future due to the FEI new resolutions. Having said so, IJRC who firmly represents the riders, still wants to have an active part in FEI sporting life».
One of the crucial points that animated the meeting was the voting system unveiled by FEI in Istanbul and the need of keeping an open and profitable channel of communication between riders and FEI governing bodies.
«After Istanbul, IJRC has been asked by FEI Legal Dept. to set a proactive front to offer our contribution to FEI new resolutions. I personally think this is our chance to be part in the game and I would like to get all IJRC members’ support to bring out shared ideas. The FEI resolutions might be negotiable or not. But I think it is our duty to be constructive and offer our opinions and ideas to improve the sport».
Following this proposal, some suggestions came out from the meeting. It was suggested, for example, to fix among the IJRC members the eligibility to Fei offices or to limit the voting public to athletes that attended 5* events in the previous year to the election. Another suggestion was to leave the voting system as in Fei resolution (14.000 voting athletes) while keeping open the option to go back to IJRC system if there’s no candidate performing the 50% of the votes.
After deep analysis and a long confrontation, IJRC General Assembly authorized the legal representatives of the Club to meet the FEI in order to find out if conditions are in place to eventually discuss about a memorandum. If this is the case, the draft of the Memorandum will be submitted to the IJRC Assembly for approval.
PM
