Clubs

A history of clubs, before it was a history of leagues

Tunisian judo first developed club by club. The capital’s first club opened in the late 1940s in the Lafayette district. In 1957, a club was founded at Sidi Bou Saïd, moved in 1961 to La Marsa under the banner of the Avenir Musulman — the forerunner of today’s AS Marsa — while gyms opened in Sfax and Sousse. In Tunis, the Judo Club Kano set up on rue de Vesoul, with several black-belt instructors who broadened the pool of qualified coaches available in the capital. Until the mid-1960s, each of these clubs operated on its own, with no coordination at federal level.

The 1976 regionalisation

In 1976, the creation of regional leagues brought the centralisation on Tunis to an end and anchored judo firmly in Tunisia’s regions, bringing federal oversight closer to the clubs themselves. The first league created, the Southern League, brought together the clubs of Sfax, Kairouan, Sousse and Gabès under the chairmanship of Chadly Siala. Today’s regional leagues are the direct heirs of this organisation put in place from 1976 onward; their organisation is set out in the league statutes.

Resources for affiliated clubs

Affiliated clubs manage their licences through the licence management portal. The way the leagues operate, the organisation of the sport and its tournaments are set out in reference texts that every affiliated club should know: the league statutes set out the Federation’s territorial organisation, the sporting and organisational code sets the rules of competition, and the tournament specifications govern how clubs and leagues organise tournaments. Together, these texts form the framework within which every club’s activity takes place, from the local training hall up to regional and national competition.