We were in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) back in 1996 preparing the WAKO World championships. During the various meeting which I had with Mr. Aleksandr Voinov, the idea came that we should create our Asian Kickboxing Federation. The day after when we met with WAKO President Mr. Ennio Falsoni and we spoke with him about the important of having the Asian Kickboxing Federation composing of Asian Countries Kickboxing Federations/organizations members of WAKO and the idea of including the Kickboxing one day in Asian Games promoted by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
Mr. Ennio Falsoni who was leading WAKO for more than 20 years who is a man with a lot of experience in sport immediately understood the important of our request and we could had discuss that during the WAKO board meeting and get approval of that.
I and Mr. Aleksandr Voinov have immediately started the work and putting together the necessary such as statutes, constitution documents and we have informed our members in Asia. Finally the Asian Kickboxing Federation could be officially created on December 1996 and registered by ministry in Kyrgyzstan under the name of “All Asian Kickboxing Federation”. We had several meeting and events in particular in Kyrgyzstan until 2003 but our activities were limited because we were concentrated to other international activities in particular in preparation of WAKO application GAISF known also as Sportaccord.
Suddenly, we were find out that some opportunist people trying to put together the new organization. We saw that from left and right of Asia every three months a new organization is coming up with the different name. Some of them almost mentioning the name of our members in their list and pretended that they have them as members. This happened in 2004 and continued in 2005 when we were informed that one of these organizations applied recognition within OCA in the name of our Asian Kickboxing Federation. We had immediately informed OCA and I together with Mr. Ennio Falsoni took the issue in our hands and finally we received an officially letter from OCA that they were not taking in consideration the application of these organizations.
I have continued my efforts to restructure our organization and working on spreading our sport around the World including in Asia and finally the sport of Kickboxing was recognized during 24th OCA General Assembly held in Guangzhou on 9th September 2005. Shortly after in December 2005 during WAKO (IF) General Assembly, upon my recommendation, it was decided the creation of 4 continental Federations in addition to the Asian Continental Federation which was the only one existed at that time The Asian Kickboxing Federation was in charge of all WAKO’s activities in Asia with the first goal as obtaining the recognition from OCA for Asian Kickboxing Federation. It was also decided to apply the significant changes in our Asian Kickboxing Federation and its constitution by an amendment of statutes, and modifying the name from “All Asian Kickboxing Federation” to WAKO Asian Kickboxing Federation.
On 19 December 2005, the Director General of OCA by un official letter addressed to 45 members of National Olympic Committee of Olympic of Council of Asia, with subject as “De-recognition of Asian and World Kickboxing Federation”, informed them that there have been some false claims made by the President of Asian and World Kickboxing Federation, who claimed to be the legitimate Federation and requested the members National Olympic Committee of Olympic of Asia to request their respective National Kickboxing Federation not to deal with Mr. Mohammad Ghassem Manoucheri.
I have started immediately working on that issue working every day together with Mr. Aleksandr Voinov. We had several meeting and preparation and finally on November 3, 2006 the General Assembly of All Asian Kickboxing Federation took place in Syria with collaboration of the Syrian NOC the Syrian Kickboxing Federation during which, the new statutes and article of constitution were approved and the name of Federation was changed to “WAKO Asian Kickboxing Federation” (WAKO ASIA).
We have immediately filed our application of recognition with OCA and apply for inclusion of Kickboxing sport in Asian Indoor Games starting with Macau 2nd Asian Indoor Games in October 2007. After short trip to Kuwait during end of November 2006 with Mr. Ennio Falsoni, we could meet with the management team of OCA and present our file and application.
I was attended with Mr. Ennio Falsoni in Macedonia where WAKO was holding its European championships but I should also travel at the same time to Doha to present the application of our Asian Confederation for inclusion of Kickboxing in Macau 2007 Asian Indoor Games. After a long meeting and discussion in our hotel, we share the responsibility and we decided that Mr. Ennio Falsoni should attend the WAKO European championships in Macedonia and I should travel to Doha immediately.
During November and December 2006, I had spent several days in Doha where I met Mr. Driss El Hilali one of the WAKO old partner in Morocco who was in Doha as Techncial Delegate of Taekwondo of Asian Hames. It was during these few days that I could finally obtain from OCA the confirmation of our Asian Federation membership and the inclusion of Kickboxing sport in Macau 2nd Asian Indoor Games subject to approval of OCA executive board.
Following the success of our presentation in Kuwait and Qatar (Doha), during the 50th OCA Executive Board meeting, Olympic Council of Asia had granted the recognition to WAKO Asia on May 28, 2007 as body in charge of Kickboxing sport in Asia and had included Kickboxing sport in 2nd Asian Indoor Games in Macau.
I would like to say to all our members in Asia, “thank you”, thank you for your contribution to our goal of obtaining the recognition from OCA and inclusion of Kickboxing sport in Asian Indoor and Asian Martial Arts Games promoted by Olympic Council of Asia.
The recognition of Kickboxing by OCA on 9 September 2005 and inclusion of Kickboxing in 2nd Asian Indoor Games in Macau are considered as a great achievement and a significant milestone on the road to developing kickboxing on the international sports stage. This official recognition by OCA brought significant credibility to national kickboxing federations in Asia and in other continents. It is obvious that, without this recognition, kickboxing would be completely different and would surely not have been able to occupy the same place among the official sports that it currently occupies.
After the Asian Indoor Games in Macau, I continued my efforts for inclusion the Kickboxing sport in the Asian Martial Arts Games under the auspices of the Olympic Council of Asia and I succeeded to include the Kickboxing as one of the official sports in the first edition of Asian Martial Arts Games 2009 Thailand.
We also continued to expand the sport of Kickboxing in Asia, and we were one of the official events of the Vietnam’s 2009 Indoor Games. From 2013 and following the decision of the Olympic Council of Asia to merge together the Asian Indoor Games and Asian Martial Arts Games and the creation of “Asian Indoor Games and Martial Arts” in 2013 to be held once every 4 years, the fourth Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games were held in South Korea in 2013.
In addition, the sport of Kickboxing under the auspices of the Asian Kickboxing Confederation (WAKO ASIA) was one of the official events of the Games.
The Sport of Kickboxing again was one of the official events of the 5th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games 2017 in Turkmenistan.
The Participation in the competitions of these games exclusively belongs to the Asian countries National Kickboxing Federations/Associations that are members of the Asian Kickboxing Confederation and represent the National Olympic Committee of their country at the Olympic Council of Asia.
On 3rd September 2016, the General Assembly of Asian Kickboxing Federation among its various decisions took the decision to modify the name of organization from WAKO Asian Kickboxing Federation (WAKO ASIA) to Asian Kickboxing Confederation (WAKO ASIA) and the new logo of the Confederation was also approved by the General Assembly.
We also continued to expand Kickboxing in different zones of Asia, and finally, after several years of efforts in 2018, we finally succeed to include the sport of Kickboxing as an official sport at the South East Asian Games (Known as SEA GAMES) which were held in December 2019 in the Philippines. I would like to say that it was successfully held under the supervision of the Asian Kickboxing Confederation. It should be noted that the South East Asian Games are of special importance for 11 countries in the South East Asian region and are considered to be among the Olympic events in the region. The success of sport of Kickboxing events in these games led to inclusion of the sport of Kickboxing as the official events of the 2021 East Asian Games in Vietnam. The Participation in the competitions of these games exclusively belongs to the Asian countries National Kickboxing Federations/Associations that are members of the Asian Kickboxing Confederation and represent the National Olympic Committee of their country at the Olympic Council of Asia.
Nasser Nassiri
President
Asian Kickboxing Confederation (WAKO ASIA)