More on the history of FIAS

An article was put on Facebook about USA Sombo




I cannot make comment on the internal affairs of US Sombo but I must put some fact right. In 1993 an AGM of FIAS was held in Russia this was a non election years. The Eastern Block Countries who had just gained their independence from Communism decided that the residing President Josh Henson would no longer be FIAS President; Mr. Tichormirov led this coup it was totally unconstitutional and led to two organisation’s claiming to be FIAS. The legitimate one led by Josh Henson came known as FIAS West and the other one became FIAS East. Yet History has told us not always do the Just win and Might overcome Right, this is what happened with FIAS West and Josh Henson was a very sad period of FIAS History. The man who rescued FIAS was David Rudman when he became FIAS President, it was he who reunited all the different factions and we all became one FIAS again, he also brought in many more countries plus he recognised that if Sambo/Sombo was to become a World Wide Sport it needed to be more inclusive and not a Russian dominated sport. The British Sombo Federation under my leaderships kept a representative in both camps I stood with FIAS West Brenda Jones represented us with FIAS East. Although I totally agreed with FIAS West I also realized that the quality of competition and standard of fighters would be far better in FIAS East and it would be wrong for the BSF to deprive our players of that type of competition. Inevitably FIAS West collapsed but it still left many outside FIAS and it was David Rudman who got them together. I can remember the telephone call he made to me, saying he want myself and Josh back supporting FIAS and International Sambo as with us back many others would return, he even came over to visit us at the British Open. Not since Josh Henson and Fernando Compte (Founder of FIAS) has this happened. I returned to FIAS, Josh decided to take Sombo back as a FILA discipline this he did for a couple of years with a FILA version of a World Championship held in Turkey but eventually it was removed from FILA.

In 2009 the FIAS Annual Congress was held in Greece and it was election Year and here were three candidates for President. One was a new man someone no one had heard of, this gentleman  was Mr. Shestakov. He was a member of the Russian Parliament and a personal friend of the Russian President Mr. Putin so a very powerful man. Just before the election there was a recess after the recess two of the candidates withdrew from the election, leaving Mr. Shestakov as the New President! My own thoughts were how can a man who had no dealings with FIAS or Sambo become President and knew my old friend Fernando Compte the founder of FIAS had the same thoughts. Yet he promised millions of Dollars of support and extra support for developing countries and countries like GB who received no funding. So we all thought great and he most probably he will only be figure head. Yes the funding did come but seems to be spent on more and more staff who attend elaborate meetings all over the World and employing a Russian from GB to travel the World disrupting and causing havoc where ever he goes, well that is what various reports are telling us.

I am still not convinced that President Shestakov is responsible for all the problems FIAS has but members of his staff are and they are the one advising him to ignore the Constitution. Now the latest rumor is that FIAS will soon become a Corporate business will lead to a lot of people having a rethink of what they want from World Wide Sambo a corporation can bring lots of money to various countries so the choice is Money and Power or Democratic Organisation run by the members for the members. You can guess as an Englishman what I would vote for.

Martin Clarke