Georgian Judokas Leave Federation Congress in Protest
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, May 11
On May 10, Members of Georgia’s National Judo team, who demand the Federation President Davit Kevkhishvili resigns, left the extraordinary congress as a sign of protest.
According to the, the congress was held in order to discuss current problems in the federation, however, they could not receive answers to any of their questions from the delegates or the president.
Varlam Liparteliani, captain of the national team stated they raised some acute issues at the meeting but no one paid attention to them.
“We asked them to make a sensible decision and not to kill Georgian judo but they said first the congress had to be finished and did not respond to us…We expect David Kevkhishvili's courageous and reasonable decision – to quit his post," said Liparteliani.
Avtandil Chrikishvili, member of the Georgian national team, stated they left the congress because there was no sense in attending it. He added no confrontation had taken at the meeting.
As the President of the Federation Davit Kevkhishvili told journalists, the private security company was hired to prevent any possible incidents.
He said the recent developments were discussed but not the issue of his resignation.
“I will not even think of leaving the post because I am a legally elected president. The sportsmen can express their position of course,” he said, adding that if he resigns because of the demand of some judokas, this will weaken the institution of Federation President itself.
The Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Parliamentary Committee of Sports and the Olympic committee set up a commission to discuss the current situation in the judo federation and make relevant decisions.
The information was released by the Minister of Culture and Sports Mikheil Giorgadze. According to him, his deputies are represented in the commission.
"We agreed to set up a joint commission, which requested detailed information from the federation regarding all the problematic issues. The commission will study the issues in the coming days and we will inform you of the results and relevant decisions. Decisions will be made very soon,” he added.
Georgian national team started boycotting the federation president on May 4. They are refusing to train or participate in international competitions until the current president of the federation hold his post. The sportsmen claim Kevkhishvili fails to perform his duties and misuses federation funds.
