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.