ARTICLE 4: THE REFEREE PANEL
1. The Refereeing Panel for each bout shall consist of one Referee (SHUSHIN), four Judges (FUKUSHIN), and one Match Supervisor (KANSA).
2. The Referee, Judges and Match Supervisor (KANSA) of a Kumite bout must not have the nationality or be from the same National Federation of either of the participants.
3. Referees and Judges Deployment and panel allocation:
— For the eliminatory rounds the RC Secretary will facilitate to the software system technician handling the electronic drawing system a list containing the Referees and Judges available per Tatami. This list is done by the RC Secretary once the Competitors draw is finished and at the end of the Referees Briefing. This list must only contain Referees present at the Briefing and must comply with the abovementioned criteria. Then for the Referees draw, the technician will enter the list in the system and 4 Judges, 1 Referee and 1 Match Supervisor (KANSA) out of each Tatami deployment will be randomly allocated as Referee Panel for each bout.
— For medal bouts the Tatami Managers will provide the RC Chairman and Secretary with a list containing 8 officials from their own Tatami after the last bout of the eliminatory rounds is finished. Once the list is approved by the RC Chairman it will be given to the software technician for to be entered in the system. The system will then randomly allocate the Referee panel, which will only contain 5 out of the 8 officials from each tatami.
4. In addition, for facilitating the operation of bouts/matches, 2 Tatami Managers, 1 Tatami Manager Assistant, 1 Score Supervisor and 1 Score Keeper shall be appointed. An exception is Olympic events where there will be only 1 Tatami Manager.
EXPLANATION:
I. At the start of a Kumite match, the Referee stands on the outside edge of the match area. On the Referee’s left stand Judges numbers 1 and 2, and on the right stands Judges numbers 3 and 4.
II. After the formal exchange of bows by Competitors and the Referee panel, the Referee takes a step back, the Judges and the Referee turn inwards, and all bow together. All then take up their positions.
III. When changing the Judges, the departing Officials, except the Match Supervisor, take up position as at the start of the bout or match, bow to each other, and then leave the area together.
IV. When individual Judges change, the incoming Judge goes to the outgoing Judge, they bow together and change positions.
V. In team matches, provided that the entire panel holds the required qualification, the positions of Referee and Judges may be rotated between each bout.