Article on French Judo

Please see http://combatdisciplines.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/french-judo-is-no-longer-democratic.html

European judo and by default, international judo is under attack from a very powerful sport body with lots of followers and with lots of dollars...Judo itself with its humanism values will likely survive, but the shiai circuit of grand prix and monthly competition is facing a very difficult battle for its keeping.
Nowadays, money and politics are weapons of choice for exercising control. Time is running short.

Mr Douillet, past champions and now members of the French Legislation had this to say in the past week during an interview to the French magazine lequipe:A propos de l'annulation des championnats d'Europe de Glasgow : « Je trouve ça trop dur, je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce type de décision qui ne me paraît pas très démocratique, un peu brutale. »...I disapprove, this kind of decision does not seem to be too democratic.

A propos du judo et du MMA : « Le judo est un sport d'avenir (...) avoir peur des disciplines comme le MMA c'est complétement ridicule. »...to be afraid of other disciplines such as MMA is ridiculous.

I am sure he is not the only one with this kind of approach...

Disagree or not, if MMA is illegal, there's not much recourse, is there?

The desire to link up with another org maybe pushed by different motives depending of the needs and the expectations of the parties. Monetary gain, control, increase membership, power base or just consolidation. As you know, the French fed is a national recognized and subsidized body. It's members hold national licenses after strict exam and the teachers must conform to the fed policies. One of the major obstacle, in my view, is that the judo federation view the safety elements as primordial in its teaching and the MMA does not hold the same value to that principle. Of consideration also, is that the French org has begun to push for the JU jutsu as a collateral to its judo program as it was in the early 50.
The saga is not yet finished...