JosÉ Damiani Answers the Press

Having already held a press conference last week – with Bill Gtes, Antoine Bernheim, Romain Zaleski, José Damiani asked for new written questions from bridge journalists.

Some general remarks:

First, on the work of the Executive Council: we spent three days on a brainstorming discussion for the future of bridge and the WBF.

It is clear that we have a strong willingness to reinforce the youth policy.

The WBF is going to participate in the Intellympiad in Beijing 2008 after the Olympic and Paralympic Games and we want the federations to use the next two years to be able to present one junior team each that will be sponsored by the organisation at least for accommodation and food, if not for travel.

I also presented a recommendation to the Congress on how to promote the game.

For that purpose, if the biggest zones or federations were prepared to help the smaller ones, it could be of interest to reduce the number of zones from 8 to 5 as in the IOC five rings, specifically merging Zones 2, 3 and 5 and Zones 4 and 6 without interfering with the qualifications for the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and Senior Bowl, which will remain the same.

To help to finance the promotion and youth policy, we suggested an increase in the dues from $0.50 to $1 per players over a three-year period (2008, 2009, 2010). This will only correct the inflation and drop in value of the US dollar. If every bridge player in the world were to pay that, it would not affect the Federation budget.

Then we would like to review the elections of our representatives which must come partly at least from the Congress, with some women among them, and the election of the President who can also be elected by the Congress.

The NBOs and the zones may give consideration to all that during the coming two years before the next Congress in 2008.

Secondly, on this championship:

It has been another success as far as the venue is concerned.

The playing conditions are good, there is good technology and a good atmosphere.

There may have been rather too many appeals considering the participation, which has been greater than in Montreal four years ago, but less than in Lille eight years ago.

Here are some figures:

In my view these show that only the Seniors have increased slightly.

So, for the future of such events, we have to worry about the bridge population getting older and older.

Some questions from journalists and my answers:

Mabel Bocchi asked whether, in order to facilitate the job of the press, it would not be possible to ask the players to register immediately for all the events they intend to play. In such a way, we would avoid mistakes due to lack of information.

In this respect, we regret the players' lack of discipline in registering and not showing up or, on the contrary, showing up without registering. This is the main difficulty we face in organizing this event. We need more cooperation from the players.

It would really be helpful if the players, as is the case in other sports, could make themselves available for interview after play. Would it be possible to organize this?

Regarding the relationship between the press and the players, it would be nice if they were more available for interviews, especially in the big newspapers or radio and TV.

On the other hand, for years now as a result of certain events (September 11, Salt Lake City) and the participation of VIPs such as Bill Gates, Antoine Bernheim, Romain Zaleski, we have been getting good press coverage.

And that was the case in Paris in 2001, Salt Lake City in 2002, Monaco 2003, Istanbul 2004, Estoril 2005 and here in Verona in 2006.

With respect to the calendar, Jean-Paul Meyer noted that the European Championships and the World Bridge Open Team Championships (such as this one in Verona) are very similar. Holding both events is a burden
- for organizers
- for players
- for NBOs

He wondered whether it would be possible to organize ONE common event instead.

There is a gap of 18 months between the European Team Championships and the Bermuda Bowl/Venice Cup, i.e., between qualification and the World Championships. Could that be changed?

Indeed, I have already had the opportunity to say to my European colleagues that we might consider organizing the World and European Open Championships together in the even years. I believe that we have to bear in mind the market (i.e., the bridge players' demands) as this may be reduced year by year as the bridge population gets older.

This will also have the advantage of returning to the previous calendar whereby the Bermuda Bowl will follow the European Team Championships, which is more sensible.

On the organization, Mr. Meyer noted that more and more information is being given to the players in a shorter time, which is a very good thing. Does this imply that the staff is bigger than previously? Can you tell us how many people work on this championship.

You know that I am a 'communications man' and, as such, I consider it to be of primary importance to keep the players and the press as informed as possible.

Here we have been helped by the new technology and an efficient staff of about 150 people, including officials.

Participation: last time this event was held in Europe, it was in Lille. Verona is undoubtedly more of a tourist town. How do you explain the decrease in participation? It seems that fewer Italian players took part than French players eight years ago.

You have seen the figures presented in this article. The participation here is better than Montreal four years ago, which certainly suffered because of September 11, but organizing the event in Europe is also getting more people. However, Lille, eight years ago, was a tremendous event because of a very high French and European participation.

I do not know why the Italians did not play as much in this event, as I remember some team tournaments years ago in Milan, Rome or Venice with some 200 teams.

Here we have a very good participation from the North Americans, the French, the Dutch and the Poles, but we are missing Asia (except China).

Finally, how many member NBOs does the WBF have and how many registered players?

The WBF figures were given to the Congress in detail: 130 member countries and a little more than 700,000 registered members (including junior and schools). This must be improved.

Barry Rigal wanted to know if, following the rescheduling of the 2001 Championships, there were any prospects of holding any future events in Bali – or elsewhere in Indonesia?

This is my own sorrow as the Indonesian administrators and players are very good friends of mine.

They also did a marvellous job with the youth, with more than 30,000 pupils learning bridge. Every year we hope to arrange a championship in Bali, but each time a disaster seems to happen, when we try to help.

I keep in mind that they deserve our attention as soon as possible.

Mark Horton thought that the final of the Senior Pairs might be too big. Several pairs have dropped out from fatigue/lack of interest.

The conditions of contest stated that we were going to organize the Seniors events according to the numbers that we had, unfortunately, only at the time of starting. Then we thought that playing the whole field would be more attractive than cutting it.

Indeed, the format is good except that some of the Seniors are tired and have withdrawn.

It is bad luck on pairs who miss qualification because of the drop ins. Why not offer them a bye into the semi-finals of the next championships as a consolation?

You may have noticed that we organized a new World Championship IMP Pairs which is played with the same barometer final and same number of 72 pairs.

So those who did not qualify (12) because of the drop in from the Rosenblum were qualified, together with another eight or 10 pairs, directly for this IMP final, an opportunity that did not exist before.

Will you introduce electronic scanners to prevent mobile phones etc being taken into the playing areas?

It is clear that we will have to introduce these scanners if the players will not discipline themselves.

And the final question, what about IMSA?

The creation of IMSA (International Mind Sports Association) and the next Intellympiad organization will certainly help again in the recognition of the values of the mind sports games.

We are grateful to the champions for their help in this field and thank them a lot.

We all need to pull together in the same direction – players, administrators or journalists for the good of bridge.