Headlines

02/12/2000 - 30/12/2000

Below the last items discussed during the 2010' PARIS AGM. The English version has been realised by Gilles Fabre (IRB). Crédit Photos: Christelle GLEMET

·    

·        Tarbais engineers offer help. The Armagnac Bigorre Committee (Gers and Hautes-Pyrénées, 56 clubs, 12,369 members, 728 players) has requested the help of the Tarbes School of Engineering which has agreed to provided guides who speak foreign languages to assist at U18 European Championship.

·        Workshop for Commissioners and Tournament Managers in Montpellier. Justin Bridou

·        A price to suit all pockets. Five categories of accommodation will be available to the participants in the U18 European Championship. Prices will be available at : 57, 65, 75, 85 and 105 Euro per person per day. The costs of 30 participants, of which 26 will be players, will be covered by FIRA-AER and the cost of any additional participants will be covered by their unions. .

·        Thanks to Justin BRIDOU who, as well as sponsoring the competition, also provided a shield which will be awarded to the winners of the Elite competition

·        Thank you also to Amandine GUICHARD, Michel ARPAILLANGE, Gilles BIZOT, Philippe BOURDARIAS (IRB) for their efforts in creating the handbook to accompany the U18 Championship.

·        No alcohol allowed on participants tables. Speeches and presentation of gifts were transferred to the managers conference in order to free up time at the final banquet. The Committee clubs will make suggestions for activities to their hosts

·        Committees: All committees have been elected: discipline, appeals, disputes. Equally two European technical staff, John DAVIS and Antoine MARIN and two legal experts will be solicited.

·        Photo of Captains. A photograph of the captains in their national jerseys will be taken. It will be similar to the one taken at the World Cup.

·        Mixed-level training sessions. As is tradition, the bigger nations will invite the smaller nations to their training sessions to help them improve.

·        FIRA-AER to provide €79,000. With the IRB’s contribution of €286,000 remaining unchanged and the number of participants increasing from 24 to 28 (40 matches) FIRA-AER will be required to provide €79,000 in funding.

·        Sanctions. Sanctions concerning breach of deadlines and behaviour will range in severity from €100 to €5,000

·        Azerbaijan and Slovakia have applied to host the ENC3D tournament which was last and most successfully hosted by Bosnia

·        General Assembly 2011: 1^st weekend of December. At the opening of the Executive Board meeting, Jean-Claude BAQUÉ invited the representative of Société Générale, Mr. Raphael NIEMI to attend the 2011 event.

·        New logo: A new, more modern, more visually appealing logo which will be more suited to media and commercial use was submitted and approved by the General Assembly.

·        Updating of directory. Amandine GUICHARD, the new Communications Assistant announced the updating of the directory in January 2011.

·        Catalonia case dismissed. The trial resulted in the imposition of a €10,000 fine to be paid to FIRA-AER.

·        FIRA-AER week in the Canaries. The Summer General Assembly from 24 to 26 June 2011, will bring together; the NTDs (from Wednesday onwards), the General Secretaries (Thursday), the Chairmen (Friday and Saturday), in all between 150 and 160 individuals who will exchange and share information throughout “FIRA-AER week”, The Spanish organisers have distributed application forms. The organisers of the 2012 congress in Denmark (Odense) will submit their application on this occasion.

·        Estonia admitted … Turkey and Iceland to follow. With its Men and Women’s senior teams, its Juniors, the support of the Olympic Committee, the schools and university sector, the military academy … Estonia has been admitted on a trial basis for one year. Turkey (byelaw problems), Iceland and Lichtenstein are still awaiting admission.

·        The Games of the Small States of Europe to be held in Lichtenstein. Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg, San Marino, Malta, Monaco and Iceland wish to include rugby in the programme for the Games

·        Two apply to join Executive Board. The two candidates, Peter SCHUPBACH (Switzerland) and Xavier VILASETRU (Andorra) were unanimously approved. The 45^th member of the Board will be appointed in the Canaries.

·        Cross-border initiative reintroduced : The reintroduction of this project is aimed at considerably increasing the number of players. As the figures for domestic competitions were inadequate due to a lack of numbers in certain countries we need to establish links between neighbouring countries in order to improve the quality of play. Five geographical zones will be identified based on the existing zones and a calendar for matches will be drawn up.

·        Youth competitions formalised. All have been put in place.

·        Honour Roll. Apart from Romanian, who had already received its award, the following champions were formally honoured: Belgium (2A), Croatia (2B), Lithuania (3A), Slovenia (3B), Israel (3C), Cyprus (3D), Spain (Women’s 7s and XVs), Portugal 7s), France (U18), Georgia (U19), Lithuania (U20).

·        Welcome to our new Chairmen. Dragan VUKSANOVIC (Serbia) Johny STAVRINOU (Cyprus), Peer SCHUPBACH (Switzerland), Rolandas ALKSNYS (Lithuania), Okis OLEKSANDR (Ukraine).

·        The icing on the cake. For anyone who wished to prolong their work with a visit to the stadium, FIRA-AER provided tickets for the Racing Metro/Stade Français match and made a coach available to drive them to Colombes.

·        Société Générale XV team. As a prelude to Friday evening’s diner at the Société Générale, Ms Hafida GUENFOUD-DUVAL, head of Arts patronage and sponsorship, proposed a toast to the contracts agreed between her company and the Rugby community. Jean-Claude BAQUÉ took the opportunity to suggest the creation of a Société Générale XVs team comprised of a bank employee from each of the countries in which it is represented. This team will be invited by FIRA-AER to attend one of the matches played by the French XV team in Paris. The proposal was enthusiastically approved.