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“It
is very important for FIDE that the World Youth Championships
are held in the very best and professional manner, and it
reflects very badly not only on FIDE but on the whole chess
world when we experience unprofessional conduct of the events.”
JEAN-PAUL
TOUZE, chess events organiser of Belfort, France, has to
be an amazingly arrogant man. After the horrors he created
for players at the World Youth Championships in 2005 - including
the contingent from Trinidad and Tobago - Touze is now appealing
the decision banning him from organising any FIDE event
for five years.
Double Rooks reported extensively on the ordeal our team
- junior players, their guardians and officials - experienced
at this poorly organised tournament. Apart from general
mismanagement, confused procedures and dubious accommodation,
there was the unheeding take-it-or-leave-it attitude of
Touze himself.
But the Trini juniors were not the only team who suffered
from inferior arrangements and insensitive officials at
Belfort. In fact, 12 national federations officially submitted
complaints to FIDE about the treatment they received at
the Touze-presented event.
Indeed, FIDE officials themselves revealed that, on several
occasions during six months prior the Championships, they
pointed out to Touze and his team several issues and concerns
regarding the organisation of the tournament. However, it
seemed that the organisers went ahead with their plans without
taking into consideration the advice given by the world
body.
FIDE noted: “From the complaints received, it is quite
obvious that the Championships were not organised on the
level that should be expected of this important world event
and in accordance with well-established practice.
“This
includes the conditions for participants, the infrastructure
of the Championships and the quality of the management.
Many participants and delegations expressed their dissatisfaction
in the way they were treated and how their concerns were
resolved.
“It
is very important for FIDE that the World Youth Championships
are held in the very best and professional manner, and it
reflects very badly not only on FIDE but on the whole chess
world when we experience unprofessional conduct of the events.”
In their comments, the United States delegation described
the Belfort affair as “the worst international tournament”
they had ever experienced.
Now Touze, instead of considering FIDE’s five-year
ban as lenient, is seeking to have it overturned. In March
2006 he appealed to the FIDE Ethics Committee (FEC) for
an annulment. Six months later, in a display of unbelievable
effrontery, he took his case to the Court of Arbitration
for Sport (CAS), asking for 100,000 euros as compensation
and also for a quashing of the ban imposed by the FIDE executive
board.
In their reply, FIDE officials argued that the appeal was
too late, that a decision taken by the executive board can
be overturned only by the FIDE general assembly and that
the ethics committee is not a general “appeal court”
within the system of the world body.
“Therefore,”
FIDE stated, “the CAS should not make a decision in
the case since Mr Touze so far has not made an appeal to
the GA and that sending his appeal to the EC was clearly
to the ‘wrong address’
In response to the Belfort organiser, the Court of Arbitration
ruled in favour of FIDE by stating that the ethics committee
had no jurisdiction to change decisions made by the executive
board. And since Touze still had the opportunity to appeal
to th FIDE general assembly, the Court declined to consider
the case and rejected the claims he presented.
Touze’s effort to be compensated for a penalty he richly
deserves will flabbergast many, particularly those players
and officials who suffered from his mismanagement. We would
advise the Belfort organiser to drop his appeal and to learn
from this unfortunate experience.
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