WAF’s Night Marathon
WAF Congress was held before the World Championships.
On the first day of the world championship, when all the teams already arrived in Gdynia, the WAF Congress began. The discussion started at 6 p.m. and lasted till 2 a.m. WAF, as usual, will publish the protocol, but before that let’s hear from Igor Mazurenko.
Igor Mazurenko, President of FAP, Vice-President of the EAF.
It is necessary to divide the Congress into two parts: a working part, during which we discussed the rules, arrangements and various amendments to the Constitution, and the second part, which was to be devoted to the most important issues, in general to assess the former WAF management. But, to my great surprise, the most important part of the discussion on the former secretary of the World Federation and the financial report of the “former” WAF was moved to the end of the meeting. In my opinion, it was useless as everyone was too tired to listen.
That’s why the issue was not fully clarified. The matter was brought up, and people who believed that everything associated with Canada was sacred, started to have doubts. Yet, we did not dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

Nobody told Fred Roy: “You are guilty, you have to account for your actions and give back the equipment.” It’s sheer madness! From the very beginning there was a problem with the financial report. The WAF constitution states that every financial report must be approved by the Congress, not only accepted as a point on the agenda. The management somehow managed to avoid answering the question what they did with our money till 2006. They claimed to have forgotten to print out the report, or they would inform us about the expenses at the end of a competition. It cannot be like that. Words are not enough as far as serious settlement is concerned! We need bills, invoices, contracts.
To everyone’s great surprise, we only touched upon a few things during this year’s Congress.

One of members of the Congress, an accountant by profession, said that instead of the report, or any documents concerning doping control expenses, he only heard that “$ 5,000 were spent on doping control in Brazil.” It’s puzzling, because there is no document confirming that any money was transferred from the account of the Federation into the account of the doping control institution. There is not even a scrap of paper confirming that the institution testing the samples got any money.
One can also wonder whether or not any of the samples were actually tested . Several people present in Brazil witnessed a following scene: one of the competitors selected to be tested, approached his coach and said – “Coach, I’m done. I took Stanazol, I’ll be disqualified for two years!” However, the WAF Doping Control Committee was informed that the results of all the samples taken in Brazil were negative. This seems very strange, especially when we take into account the12 positive results after the European Championships. This looks like a scandal, embezzlement.
What about the issue of equipment? WAF have (supposedly) twelve computers. Each worth one thousand and a half dollars. Meanwhile, the new management have received only four old laptops-  two of them not working and one to be repaired. In addition, it is not the equipment of the “new generation”. However, the former WAF management claimed to have bought new computers every year.
Another issue is the costs of transport of the crew responsible for the live broadcast. I’m handling a live broadcast of the event on my own and I use my own equipment and means of transport. I’d like WAF to give me $ 5,000 to cover the costs. When I asked about that, a silence hung in the air.
There is also another issue. The interpreter for the World Championships in Brazil was paid $ 2800. What’s quite interesting, the lady flew from Kazakhstan...
I’ll put it bluntly: these people grabbed a piece of the pie and spent our money on what they wanted and did what they wanted.
Fortunately, the Congress appointed a committee to check the finances of the former WAF management. It will be chaired by the head of the Swedish Armwrestling Federation, Andres Axlo, and I hope he makes sure everything is carefully checked.

PeSzy