"I’m a WAF Master Referee with 14 years of experience, EAF Director of Referee Training and a member of EAF Referee Panel.
Without any warning, the EAF Executive Board has decided to remove me from the list of referees prepared by David Shead, EAF Head Referee, with only a note saying “Judyta is not invited”.
After questions from the Head Referee about the reasons for removing me, the answer of Mircea Simionescu Simicel, EAF General Secretary, boils down to: “Judyta is not banned but we consider it is better not to invite her”.
After my official request to the EAF Executive Board for rational reasons of my removal, I received an answer from the EAF General Secretary, stating that “I have no explanations nor official reasons to give to you. EAF executive board decided the list.”
Dear EAF Members, I have decided to appeal to You, as You are the highest power in EAF.
There is nothing in WAF constitution allowing the General Secretary/Executive Board to remove someone from the list of referees or even prepare such a list (this is the exclusive competence of Head Referee). There is only one exception for when someone is not in good standing, but the General Secretary confirmed that I’m not.
I haven’t violated any WAF rules as well.
Moreover, as an EAF Director of Referee Training, it is my duty to be present at the European Championships during the referee seminar, as well as during the whole competition to provide training for referees (according to WAF rules points 3.2.1, 3.2.2), while now I’m forbidden because of the decision of the Executive Board, that is supposed to follow the rules.
It is the first situation in WAF history when a WAF Master referee is refused from refereeing on WAF/EAF Championships without any reason.
Moreover, the Executive Board has decided that it will be better to invite two junior referees with just 1 year of experience and put them on the main list with reimbursement of all costs, hotel room, meals and pay them 25 euro per day. Meanwhile two Turkish referees with years of experience are not put there and told that they will have to pass an exam (one of them is WAF Senior level).
Dear Russian-speaking Members, I’m the only member of the Referee Panel with both good English and Russian. I’ve always supported you during any protest and helped in communication between you and the referees.
Now, there is no one understanding Russian in the Referee Panel, and even among all the Euroarm 2019 approved referees (present for all the days). As such there is no one that could assure a proper communication between Russian and English speaking athletes and referees, and to translate protests. We all know how crucial it is that the person translating the protest has both a good level of both languages and a knowledge of armwrestling rules and techniques to assure that a complaint made by an athlete would be understood correctly.
By the decision of the Executive Board, apart from me, also 4 more very good referees (one WAF Master, and 3 WAF Seniors) are not allowed to participate, as they were refereeing a PAL event (conducted by WAF rules!).
I’m trying to remain as objective as possible, but I cannot see how these decisions of Executive Board could be any good for armwrestling?
Refusing 2 WAF Master-referees and 3 WAF Senior-referees from refereeing in Euroarm and choosing 2 Junior-referees instead, could only decrease the level of refereeing and could be harmful to athletes.
And allow me to remind you that in my case the Executive Board has absolutely no reason to remove me from the list of referees, and they’ve openly admitted that. I don’t want to speculate about reasons of Executive Board decision, as on their level of position they have to have a strong proofs to support their decisions. I just present facts to you.
Dear EAF Members, you have the power to change the decisions of the Executive Board or the Executive Board itself.
Please consider my complaint, and make a decision that will support the armwrestling as a whole.
Regards,
Judyta Wiercińska
WAF Master Referee
EAF Director of Referee Training
Member of EAF Referee Panel ”