KONI bans athletes from TFC involvement

KONI bans athletes from TFC involvement

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Sports Council (KONI) has warned its member sports
associations against involving themselves in the TPI Fighting
Championship, citing a fear of distraction from national sports
development.

The TPI Fighting Championship (TFC) is a free fighting contest
where the participants come from various martial arts
disciplines.

The TFC is aired live on TPI television every Saturday night.
Based on a Japanese program, Pride Fighting Championship (PFC),
which the channel also puts out every week, the TFC appears to
have attracted many TV viewers given its high ratings of between
5 and 6.

However, the program producers will now have to deal a new
challenge after KONI, which is supposed to be responsible for
national sports development, issued the warning about its
negative impact.

"After consultation with the sports organizations, we have
decided to ban athletes from taking part in the TFC as it
violates the fighting codes of each of the martial arts," KONI
deputy chairman Arie Sudewo told reporters here on Thursday.

"A participant (in the TFC) is supposed to master more than
his own discipline. This is going too far in that it undermines
each of the sports," Arie said.

Arie said that the ban would also apply to any officials
involved in the TFC, whether as commentators or members of the
medical screening team.

Meanwhile, TPI, which later held a press conference hosted by
Agus Syafrudin, the TPI director of marketing and programs,
argued the program would not only spur the development of mixed
martial arts but also help provide athletes and former athletes
with incomes.

"The TFC is not a contest between contenders from different
disciplines but between contenders who have mastered more than
one discipline," Agus said. "They come to the contest not as
fighters from particular martial arts or sports organizations but
as individuals," he added.

That mixed martial arts discipline was based on the ancient
Olympic sport of pancratium.

Agus said that the popularity of pancratium had begun to
revive recently, and it was scheduled to return to the 2004
Olympics as an exhibition sport.