Dear Colleagues and Friends, It gives me the greatest pleasure to report that this year’s SportAccord was a great success, especially for IFMA and muaythai. We have been there both as a member of SportAccord (formerly known as GAISF) and also as an exhibitor at the convention to further promote our upcoming IOC application. Our booth was very popular with many IOC members, officials from sport federations, NOC’s and so on visiting and obtaining a deeper understanding of our sport. The Good Morning Dubai class was a hit with over 70 delegates participating in the morning beach muaythai workout. It was a great promotion for muaythai as the IOC had the opportunity to experience the fitness side of our sport. We had the honour of being highlighted in the daily convention paper three times! We also had the chance to talk to the representatives of many other games – Commonwealth Games, TAFISA Games, University Games and so on. I would like to thank our international office for all their hard work and dedication in promoting muaythai. I would also like to thank our UAE association for their kind hospitality and assistance throughout, especially Mr. Vladimir Burdun. We also signed the final contract for the upcoming Beijing SportAccord Combat Games and this will be a historical co-operation of the 13 IF’s involved. We now must work closely together with all upcoming events, eg the African Championships, European Championships, Asian Championships, and our IFMA World Championships. IFMA has grown and as you can see, this year we have four continental championships (including Pan-American), SportAccord Combat Games (under patronage of the IOC), plus our own World Championships. I would like to thank everyone for all their hard work. I also would like to apologise for all the letters circulated by Mr. Cockburn. He is now suspended from IFMA until final decision and he is not permitted to be involved in any national or international IFMA activities. On a final note, please look out for all upcoming stories on our IFMA website, and I look forward to seeing all executive board members at our upcoming EB meeting and our upcoming intercontinental championships.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan President