1. No one may protest about a Judgement to the members of the Refereeing Panel.

2. If a Refereeing procedure appears to contravene the rules, the President of the Federation or its official representative is the only one allowed to make a protest.

3. The protest will take the form of a written report submitted immediately after the bout in which the protest was generated. (The sole exception is when the protest concerns an administrative malfunction. The Tatami Manager should be notified immediately the administrative malfunction is detected).

4. The protest must be submitted to a representative of the Appeals Jury. In due course the Jury will review the circumstances leading to the protested decision. Having considered all the facts available, they will produce a report, and shall be empowered to take such action as may be called for.

5. Any protest concerning application of the rules must be made in accordance with the complaints procedure defined by the WKF EC. It must be submitted in writing and signed by the official representative of the team or contestant(s).

6. The complainant must deposit a Protest Fee as agreed by the WKF EC, and this, together with the protest must be lodged with a representative of the Appeals Jury.

7. Composition of the Appeals Panel

The Appeals Jury is comprised of three Senior Referee representatives appointed by the Referee Commission (RC). No two members may be appointed from the same National Federation. The RC should also appoint three additional members with designated numbering from 1 to 3 that automatically will replace any of the originally appointed Appeals Jury members in a conflict of interest situation where the jury member is of the same nationality or have a family relationship by blood or as an In-Law with any of the parties involved in the protested incident, including all members of the Refereeing panel involved in the protested incident.

8. Appeals Evaluation Process

It is the responsibility of the party receiving the protest to convene the Appeals Jury and deposit the protest sum with the Treasurer.

Once convened, the Appeals Jury will immediately make such inquiries and investigations, as they deem necessary to substantiate the merit of the protest. Each of the three members is obliged to give his/her verdict as to the validity of the protest. Abstentions are not acceptable.

9. Declined Protests

If a protest is found invalid, the Appeals Jury will appoint one of its members to verbally notify the protester that the protest has been declined, mark the original document with the word “DECLINED”, and have it signed by each of the members of the Appeals Jury, befor

10. Accepted Protests

If a protest is accepted, the appeals Jury will liaise with the Organizing Commission (OC) and Referee Commission to take such measures as can be practically carried out to remedy the situation including the possibilities of:

— Reversing previous judgments that contravene the rules
— Voiding results of the affected matches in the pool from the point previous to the incident
— Redoing such matches that have been affected by the incident
— Issuing a recommendation to the RC that involved Referees are evaluated for sanction

The responsibility rests with the Appeals Jury to exercise restraint and sound judgment in taking actions that will disturb the program of the event in any significant manner. Reversing the process of the eliminations is a last option to secure a fair outcome.

The Appeals Jury will appoint one of its members who will verbally notify the protester that the protest has been accepted, mark the original document with the word “ACCEPTED”, and have it signed by each of the members of the Appeals Jury, before depositing the protest with the Treasurer, who will return the deposited amount to the protestor, and in turn forward the protest document to the Secretary General.

11. Incident Report

Subsequent to handling the incident in the above prescribed manner, the Jury Panel will reconvene and elaborate a simple protest incident report, describing their findings and state their reason(s) for accepting or rejecting the protest. The report should be signed by all three members of the Appeals Jury and submitted to the Secretary General.

12. Power and Constraints

The decision of the Appeals Jury is final, and can only be overruled by a decision of the Executive Committee.

The Appeals Jury may not impose sanctions or penalties. Their function is to pass judgment on the merit of the protest and instigate required actions from the RC and OC to take remedial action to rectify any Refereeing procedure found to contravene the rules.

13. Special provision for use of Video Review

NOTE: This special provision to be interpreted as separate and independent of other provisions of this Article 11, and the pertaining explanation

In WKF World Championships, the use of video review of matches is required. Use of video review is also recommended for other competitions whenever possible. In using video review the respective coaches are given a red or blue card that may be used for protest in the event that the judges in the coach’s opinion have missed a valid score by his contestant. A panel consisting of 2 persons appointed by the Tatami Manger will examine the video, and may change the Referee panel’s decision provided appointees are in agreement.

If upon examining the video, the referee panel acknowledges the protest and award the score, the coach will retain the card and the Referee will announce the revised decision. If the protest is rejected the card will be confiscated for the remainder of the match – and the coach will lose the possibility of protesting directly for that competitor for the remainder of the pool with the exception of medal matches where both contestants’ coaches will always be given cards allowing them the opportunity to protest points.