On February 22nd in Sochi an international forum “Combat Sambo League 2020” took place before the start of a tournament. Representatives of the international sambo community discussed the possibilities for the global development of the Combat Sambo League.
Arkadiy Rotenberg, head of the established Combat Sambo Lague, Vasiliy Shestakov, President of the International Sambo Federation (FIAS), Segey Eliseev, President of the European and All-Russian Sambo Federations took part in this event, along with FIAS Vice-Presidents, heads of continental sambo federations, Alamzhon Mullaev (Asia), Dalil Skalli (Africa), Omar Lopera (Pan-America), presidents of national sambo federations Seongcheon Mun (Republic of Korea), Alisher Alimov (Republic of Uzbekistan), Michael Hayrapetyan (Republic of Armenia) and Secretary General of Turkmenistan Olympic Committee Azat Muradov.
FIAS President Vasiliy Shestakov delivered a welcoming speech. FIAS Head pointed out that martial arts are a rapidly developing branch of sports world. It is for that reason that the popularization of the Russian national fighting style — combat sambo and its advancement in international professional sports arena is an immediate task. Professional Combat Sambo League, as a competitions format, has great possibilities for gaining strength in the professional martial arts market.
“If we want for everybody to be interested in sambo, for it to be competitive, we need to invite only the best athletes and almost every country has them. Sambo has great developments in Cameroon, Morocco. Asia has a very good combat sambo in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Indonesia. Europe has great athletes as well as Pan-America. We will choose the best and invite them to join the League”, — says the President.
Sergey Eliseev, President of the European and All-Russian Sambo Federations, presented a presentation about the Combat Sambo League:
“Combat Sambo today is a rapidly developing sports discipline with a vast arsenal of technical actions. Best athletes of the Russian National Team are having great success in proving this martial art’s effectiveness on an international arena. Combat Sambo has a significant difference from sports sambo. The latter’s role is to demonstrate the effectiveness of throwing and grappling techniques, combat sambo also has striking techniques with arms and legs.
But the combat sambo competitions under the banner of the League will have slightly different rules when compared to the existing ones, it will have simplified assessments of technical actions and athletes’ form. No doubt that this will increase the spectacle of this sport and make it easier to understand not only for the fans of combat sambo but for every viewer”.
Arkadiy Rotenberg, president of the Combat Sambo League, emphasized that the League’s establishment is a new branch in international sambo development. “I think that for everyone, and especially us, people that practiced combat sambo since childhood, this event is especially joyful. It is a historical event. We developed new competitions rules with the main principles of not hitting your fallen opponent. This will make it an honest fight”, — says the head of CSL.
By the end of the round table the need to develop a competitive platform for athletes that want to do combat sambo and also to make professional combat sambo attractive enough for investments from commercial partners were brought to attention. It is also important that new competitions need to be created in this innovative format and along with National Sambo Federations and other interested to develop a tournament system of the professional Combat Sambo League based on the approved regulations.
Declaration on the establishment of the Combat Sambo League was signed prior to the championship by Arkadiy Rotenberg, President of CSL, Vasiliy Shestakov, President of FIAS, Sergey Eliseev, President of the European and All-Russian Sambo Federations, and heads of every Continental Sambo Federations.
The first ever Combat Sambo League Championship was held at the “Ice Cube” arena in Sochi Olympic park. By 2022 it will be reconstructed and will be turned into the Martial Arts Academy complex where sambo and judo competitions will take place.