worlds 2008

I think the idea of the Italy one is to not rule out our worlds - it's to compliment them by just having the elite countries send the elite mens and womens. From what I've been told it's to offer a higher level of competition in a small compact competition.

I don't know if that makes sense.

Most of us in the States, that is most of us that would be directly affected by this still have more questions than opinions about the whole thing, but the general sentiment is we need more time to prepare and would rather go to SA.

Looks like the Finswimmers aren't all that happy with the plan as well.
http://www.finswimmer.com/index.php?...=19&Itemi d=9

I do agree with everyone's thoughts on the tournament (that it is a great idea but too soon), however I think it is unrealistic to think that at an amateur level (with little, if any financial assistance or sponsorship) countries will be able to send teams to both a continental (aka World) championships and a CMAS World tournament.

This may be a purely Australian sentiment, but as a sport, and as individuals representing our country at an elite level, we receive (again) little if any financial support from our government, let alone our national federation.

yeah for sure, we can only realistically go to one of them. and theres no point in everyone spending the money to attend one only to have half the rest of the world go to the other one.... so we better make sure we all go to the same comp!

i kinda think its sensible to accept the notice is too late, have whatever euro teams that can afford to attend do so, and everyone treat the SA comp as the worlds.

that way hopefully we can have some kind of prescence at the italian thing from teams close to italy who can get there easily, and the teams there can have a demonstration comp or just a decent tourney at least, and they can tell the rest of us what its like... at least that might be a realistic compromise?

i have to say that if there was a swapover to the cmas games for our world titles, i think i'd prefer that it be done in a 3 year gap rather than a 1 year gap, to switch from even to odd years.... on behalf of our pockets etc, and to give people time to get it all sorted properly.

that finswimming thread is interesting too, is this a general trend from cmas that they dont look carefully into the needs of all the sports they make decisions for?

From my experiences over the years there have been several instances of CMAS looking out for themselves and not for those athletes that they represent. One of these was with regard to the 94 World's in Rouen in France. Apparently Coca-Cola had offered to sponsor the competition, fund all competition entry fees for all participants and televise the event internationally. This could have been a big turning point for the sport to get some sort of public recognition. However, in CMAS' wisdom they felt that they would "lose control" over their competition so dismissed the idea.

If CMAS were to go ahead with a change like this I think it might be time to knock on FINA's door?? Imagine being involved in a competition such as the World Swimming Championships!

But as Atapene said, if things do get disrupted and there are several different "World" comps we, the players, need to use tolls like this forum to make sure we all end up at the same comp.

I have to agree with everything in the last three posts. I just don't understand CMAS, I'd heard something about the '94 worlds before but didn't know the extent of that.

This is why I was actually looking for what the other sports thought of the games. From what I can tell Rugby is all for it, I had to get google translations of Finish or Swedish web pages to read about it, but it fits right in with their worlds schedule any way and most of the UW Rugby world is made up of European countries anyway. US and Columbia are basically afterthoughts to that sport and (not sure) but I think are the only non-European teams.

I had assumed the whole Bari thing was being done to the benefit of the finswimmers as they seem to have the closest thing to a high profile sport CMAS controls; and from looking at the Bari2007 site and the CMAS website I saw that basically all of the decision makers are from countries that don’t play UW hockey, or at least have never participated in worlds. That assumption seems to be wrong as well as they didn't have ANYONES interest in mind.

Hello all, it is interesting to read the discussion here, and I agree that the finswimming thread in interesting. At the moment the world underwater hockey commission is having disciplinary action taken against it by CMAS, for what, we are not quite sure yet but as far as CMAS is concerned they wouldn't like the facts getting in the way of a good witch hunt. Personally i think it is because we have stood up to the dictatorial way they run things and told them that we do not agree with the timing of the Bari Comp. Right from the onset of discussions anout a world games we have said we would support it if it wqas done in 2010'


Your Commission is not supprting something where no world hockey federations have had input into. It is fine for them to say that our worlds will be in Bari but it will be my responsability to organise it. I have had a key role in organising 6 world championships and believe me I know what is required, there is not even a hockey club in Bari to help out.

The pool slopes where the walls meet the bottom meaning that walls have to be built for the entire court, we have to get a sounding and scoring system there, there has been no discussion on how teams qualify or who can enter. There has been no discussion on what happens to the juniors or masters comp as these divisions are not welcome in Bari, we need good referees but they are not offering any support to get them there.

We have tried on numerous ocassions to get CMAS to the table to talk to us, we are willing to make compramises but to compramise you need 2 parties and so far we are only one. If those who are at the top wont talk then it is impossible to move forward.

A constitution for a new world body is being circulated at the moment as it looks as we have reached a point of no return with CMAS. The Bari games are destined for failure, I do not see them becoming a European championship for the reasons I have mentioned above, why should the Europeans be made to have a sub standard comp.

The possible new world organisation will possibly be called the world aqua challenge association and the reason for the name change away from underwater hockey is to stop litigation from CMAS and also to minimise the retubution CMAS will take against the other sports that our federations run under the CMAS banner.

A split away from CMAS will have an initial cost to our sport but the commission feels that in the long run we will be better off with people, who actually know our sport making the decisions for our sport, rather that a group of hidden European divers who have no knowledge of our sport and frankly only care about power at any cost.

If you want any info on what is happening please feel free to contact me.

Cheers

Sorry one thing I forgot to mention is that talk of going to FINA is wasted band width as we have no chance of meeting their membership requirments and I know that they do not want anymore sports to look after.

Cheers

Thanks for the update Hendo.
It would be great if you could keep us all updated with how everything is going.
I am sure that all players in Australia will support a change that will in the long run help our sport to prosper.
It is about time that the sport and its players were supported by our governing bodies and not held back.
Aqua Challenge hey! At least people might loose the image of people ridding around in a pool on horses or trying to hit a ball around with a field hockey stick :-)

Thanks for the info WTD, very interesting and great to be keep up to date with everything.
belle

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