EBL Press Conference

Spain in danger of exclusion from the EBL

By Svend Novrup

The EBL, represented by The President, Gianarrigo Rona, The Honorary Secretary, Panos Gerontopoulos, and Committee Member Jens Auken were joined by the Vice President of the IBPA Jean-Paul Meyer at a Press Conference held yesterday.

EBL President - Mr Rona and EBL Secretary - Mr Gerontopoulos

After a short opening statement by the President stressing the importance of gaining Olympic recognition and the restructuring of the Championships, the floor was opened to those present. Nissan Rand, who has a regular column in one of Israel's newspapers, asked a question on behalf of Patrick Jourdain, Daily Telegraph, London about the restructuring. The President pointed out that it was important that the new style event did not take place in a Rosenblum year, hence the necessity of staging the Championships in even numbered years. It was hoped that the new format would make it easier to attract a major sponsor. The reason the only one senior team from each country will be able to play is that probably more NBOs will select and support such a team. Next year the championships will be in Salsomaggiore which is known as the perfect venue, and hopefully this will mean that in any case more ladies teams will participate. The timing of the various events would be determined once the number of entries was known.

Maureen Dennison, IBPA Secretary, asked about the possibility of events being timed so as to allow competitors to take advantage of package deals. The President confirmed he was aware of this problem but difficulties were caused by the number of teams taking part, keeping in mind there are now 45 potential entrants.

Heinz Guthwert, congratulated the EBL on the choice of Salsomaggiore for next year's Championship, but complained that no transfers had been available from the airport. Other speakers pointed out they had encountered no such difficulties and the President was confident their would be no problems next year.

Daniel Auby, Dagens Nyheter confirmed that the Swedish players were happy with the venue but was concerned about brown sticker conventions and HUM systems. He thought that the players using them were not careful enough with their descriptions.

Jens Auken, chairman of the EBL system committee said:

'We have made great progress in the handling of HUMs and brownsticker conventions but of course there have been problems, and I am greatful for the work you have done in that respect. Your team has a pair playing a HUM system, and I think that you and others will have to be very careful to explain everything as clearly as possible or it may be totally forbidden to play them. It is forbidden in ACBL, and people of strong influence want the same thing in Europe. So pairs playing these things, please be very careful with what you do -- or the right to play them may be taken away' Kees Tammens, Bridge Utrecht, asked about the possibility of the Championship being split into divisions and the President indicated that he was in favour of this idea.

Nissan Rand, asked why the Seniors had not been on VuGraph and in response, Jean-Paul Meyer pointed out the considerable technical problems one of them being that with matches of just 14 boards the session would be too short, and you wanted to follow the scoring of 20 boards from the matches on the Open and Ladies Series which would then not be possible while play was still in progress.

Jean-Paul Meyer, asked why no hand records had been available and for the position concerning the financial contribution of the Generali Group and the Spanish Federation.

The President cited the tremendous staffing problems and difficulties with the photocopiers but confirmed Hand records from every single match will be back for Salsomaggiore. The position with Generali was unclear but the money promised by the Canary and the Spanish Federations has not been paid, and if this is not done ahead of the end of the championship, the Spanish Federation will be considered not in good standing and will be excluded from the EBL as of July 11. This will mean that Spanish players can not participate in neither international or national events as every NBO in Europe has to respect such an exclusion. He said 'This is very sad, and we did not want to punish the Spanish players here in Tenerife as we know that they have been paying most of their own expenses.'

Daniel Auby raised the matter of the money deposit when you lodge an appeal was brought up as some nations can not afford to lose such money and are afraid to appeal. Instead it was suggested that a frivolous appeal could cost a penalty of 1 or 2 VPs. The Ppresident said that the money would only be taken if an appeal was ridiculous, and the players should be able to see when their appeal had absolutely no merit. Maureen Dennison told that in some British tournaments you have a person which you can consult before appealing. If he says that your appeal is of a certain merit, you can appeal without danger of losing your money.

Jens Auken thought that it would create too much tension if you took VPs in matters from the appeal's committee, and that an extra link in the appeal's process would be too much but there was very positive reactions from the floor in general to the idea of such an consultant.

The press conference lasted for more than one hour in a good atmosphere probably because it was felt that Gianarrigo Rona spoke out openly and never side stepped any question.