Dear WAF Executive,

We, WAF certified Master referees, respectfully ask you to cancel your decision about banning us from refereeing events not authorized by WAF.

We’ve been participating in WAF events for years spending our time and often our own money. We take time off from work where we would be paid, to referee as volunteers. We do this because of our passion for armwrestling and only because of passion, because we are not being paid. Some of us (but only restricted number on any Continental or World Championships) receives an accommodation and reimbursement for travel expenses. And the last one is not always in full amount. So we often need to spend our own money to come and referee for many days for free. And we do this because of our passion for this sport.

We are certified by WAF and have been trained in WAF. But it’s not WAF, who invested in our training. We had been trained by our fellow referees with more experience at that time. So we had been trained by one of us, and now we give this knowledge back by training the next generation of referees. And we do this without any monetary compensation. Only because of our passion for this sport.

We haven’t signed any contract with WAF, and there is no rule in the WAF constitution that says that we can referee only with WAF. Exclusive contracts are something present nowadays, but every company that wants exclusivity from their worker’s pay for that. Again, we don’t get any salary for being a referee at a WAF event. We do this because of passion for armwrestling.

How can we “spoil” ourselves by refereeing in different organization? We are highly qualified WAF referees. It cannot have any impact on us. It’s obviously not about us, referees. So please do not use us as an instrument in personal conflict or interest. We deserve respect.

The only thing that we expected in return is respect.

Making decisions about referees, without any consultation with us is manifestation of disrespect. Restricting things that do not affect in any way our cooperation with WAF. Your decision to ban us from refereeing other events does not have any rational foundation and will be very harmful to the development of armwrestling in the world. It is in the interest of all of us to let armwrestling grow and organize as many as possible high quality events. Restricting participation of experienced referees in new events is against developing of this sport. Even new WAF Head Referee stated that in his latest article, that all armwrestling organizers should invite for their events WAF referees, even in cases where they use different rules than WAF rules. We are WAF referees on WAF events. After Championships we are normal people, with normal jobs. Why do we need to explain ourselves for what we are doing in our free time?

Neither Boxing nor MMA tell their referees which organization they can or can’t referee for. Why should armwrestling be different?

Refereeing events with non-WAF or less trained referees make us better referees. We must be be more vigilant when refereeing with less trained referees. This helps us sharpen our skills. Also refereeing with different rules helps improve the sport. We see which rules work and which don’t. If we want to improve the sport we must be open to improving the rules and the best way to do this is to see different rules in action. We cannot pass judgment on potential new rules if we’ve never tried them.

We hope that your latest decision is a misunderstanding. And that you will take into consideration our opinion – opinion of WAF Master referees. We hope to develop armwrestling together and make this sport grow and gain popularity.

Signed,
Bob Koschel
Camilla Kattstrom,
Dave Hicks,
David Shead,
Hideki Ohmura
Ivan Gregoricka,
Judyta Wiercinska,
Joey Costello,
Keith Michel,
Luke Pulscher,
Mo Patrick Callan,
Monika Duma,
Rick Pinkney,
Sergy Sokolov,
Zil Fadli, ”