- Fresno Case
The Case Fresno is the name assigned by the Catalonia media and public opinion to the
Federation of International Roller Sports (FIRS ) assembly held at Fresno (California ), on26 November 2004 . It meant that for the first time in history, an international sport team that had been accepted provisionally was later not accepted definitely. At the same time, it was the first time that a regional sport team (Catalonia ) had been registered with the opposition of the state the region belonged to (Spain ). The Spanish sport organizations actively lobbied against theCatalonia membership among the members of the assembly. At the Fresno assembly, the membership application was rejected (8-114). However, theFederació Catalana de Patinatge brought the case to theCourt of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) atLausanne , which admitted irregularities in the assembly (notably the lack of secrecy in the vote), invalidated the vote and forced the FIRS to repeat the vote following the FIRS statute rules [http://www.tas-cas.org/fr/pdf/catalans.PDF] . An extraordinay FIRS assembly was held in Rome on November 24 2005 rejected again the membership application of the Catalan federation (125-43).After being granted a temporary membership, Catalonia played the World Championship B, at
Macau , (China ), on October2004 , winning it [http://www.eurosport.es/home/pages/v4/l6/s155/sport_lng6_spo155_sto650587.shtml] . As a result, Catalonia qualified to play the full World Championship, where it would played in the same group as Spain.pain's opposition
Some Catalan media have denounced the pressions by the Spanish government and sport organizations on the members of the assembly [http://catalanhockey.blogspot.com/2004/11/plot-reveals.html] .
Representatives from
Chile [http://usuarios.lycos.es/fresno05/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=19] orItaly (Sabatino Aracu, member ofForza Italia ) [http://www.forzaitalia.org/gruppo/deputati/leggiComunicati.asp?codiceDeputato=17&news_id=2341] would allegedly suffered from such pressions or receive instructions from their national governments.The
Czech Republic representative Radek Pavelec admitted that his federation had received pressures from the Spanish government [http://catalanhockey.blogspot.com/2004/11/plot-reveals.html] .In addition, a letter of the Consejo Superior de Deported (CSD, the Spanish Council for Sports) to the
Colombia n federation in which the Spaniards were asking for the vote against Catalonia has been made public. In that letter the CSD stated that the recognition ofCatalonia would alter the Spanish sport national unity and would create a wrong precedent.The same letter was sent to some other South American federations [http://usuarios.lycos.es/fresno05/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=65] .The German representative admitted that she was contacted by the German MP for Sport demanding the vote against Catalonia. Literally he asked her to make sure she was coming back from Fresno with a "no" against Catalonia.
External links
* [http://www.fresno04.tk/ Plataforma Fresno 04]
References
* [http://www.tas-cas.org/fr/pdf/catalans.PDF Court of Arbitration for Sport report] (
PDF ) (in French)
* [http://catalanhockey.blogspot.com/2004/11/minute-by-minute-updates_25.html The Fresno assembly facts, minute by minute]
* [http://www.fep.es/newnoticias.asp?id=1433&mod=14 Official notice by the Federación Española de Patinaje on the results of the Court of Arbitration for Sport verdict] (in Spanish).
* [http://www.iht.com/getina/files/292072.html Catalonia's roller hockey status erased by massive vote] . Rome assembly chronicle by the International Herald Tribune.
* [http://www.vilaweb.com/www/noticia?p_idcmp=1627602 Rome assembly Vilaweb new] (in Catalan)
* [http://usacd.puntdoc.es/comentario.php?a=9 Ramon Besiana speech at the Rome assembly on 24 November 2005] (DOC ) (in English and Spanish)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.