From the FIS website:


http://www.federscherma.it/news.asp?31978

MEETING IN FRANKFURT BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTS OF THE GERMAN, FRENCH, RUSSIAN, AND ITALIAN FENCING FEDERATIONS

12/14/2005, Frankfurt, Germany - Tuesday, December 13, the presidents of the German, French, Russian, and Italian fencing federations met in Frankfurt. The participants to this meeting, which was set up after the FIE Congress in Doha, were the Presidents of the German federation, Gordon Rapp, the French Federation, Frederick Pietruszka, The Italian Federation, Giorgio Scarso, and the Russian Jury Bickov representing the President of the Russian Federation, Alisher Usmanov.

The main purpose of this first meeting -- an initiative which does not intend to interfere in any way with the policies of the International Federation (FIE) -- was to promote relations between countries which have an affinity in technical problems within fencing, with the scope to present a coordinated point of view to future international Congress meetings of the FIE.

The problem of the number of Olympic medals in fencing was discussed. As everybody knows, currently there are 10 medals and initiatives are under consideration to obtain from the CIO 12 medals for Beijing 2008, even if this will not be easy. If the number will remain only 10, then the 4 countries want to know the criteria by which the number of team events will be selected, keeping in mind the gender equality policy advocated by the FIE for all events. If on the other side the criterion to be used at the Beijing 2008 Games is that of rotation, then this time the women's foil team competition should be back in the Olympic program. If a men's team event should be excluded, the 4 countries -- which have no desire to make a choice in this case -- will ask the FIE which exclusion rule will they use.

Germany, France, Russia, and Italy also agreed on the necessity to make their respective national calendars more homogeneous to improve the interexchange and participation of fencers from the 4 countries.

Given the real congestion of fencing tournaments in the calendars, a tentative proposal was put forward to bring into a single site the scheduling of competitions for the various weapons in the World Cup Under 20.

Lastly, the 4 countries are seriously determined to increase also the technical interexchanges between their maestri.


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