Today representatives from all over the Italian MMA community gathered at the IMMAF Italian Summit in Bologna to agree on key objectives for the future and lay the foundation of an Italian MMA Federation. Leading the summit was President August Wallén and board member Tom Madsen. The foundation of a true national federation is according to international standards non-profit and relies on a democratic structure where the sports community, the grass-roots, are members and hence owners of the organization. The IMMAF has worked for a year and a half now to establish and affiliate national federations in countries all over the world in order to provide MMA with the same structure and opportunities for governance, growth, safety and fair play that all other major sports have. Since April 2012 the IMMAF has been fortunate to receive a number of good applications from Italy and have during this time researched the MMA community in the country carefully. One of the key requirements for membership is to have majority representation of the MMA community, but in a country with deep roots in the martial arts and many eligible groups this requirement has proven difficult to meet. Since no current existing group has clear majority representation the IMMAF therefore sets out to create a new organization that everyone can take part in from day one. -“We have invited all of the Italian MMA community that we are aware of and also asked them to extend the invitation. I’m excited to see that the attendance list consist of almost 40 people and we’re looking forward to a productive day.” said President August Wallén before the event, Wallen who on October 1st is stepping down as President and assuming a board position. “This is a time for everyone to come together for the sake of the future of Italian MMA. I’m very pleased to be spending my last days of the Presidency working on our core task of ensuring wide representation of the MMA community from within the MMA community.” Reports from the Italian Summit will follow in the coming days.]]>
