Back in the days (2001-2010), I hosted many, many grappling competitions in Denmark. No requirements what so ever. No federation required/exist.

I've been organizing only quite small (approx. 150 ppl) comps in-house at our gym.

Super easy in Finland legislation-wise. It's an amateur event so don't have to mess with any legal stuff or bureaucracy. Just make sure to announce the competitors are not insured by the organizer.

Also we are a non-profit gym, so event incomes such as entry fees for competitions are seen as "common-good" in the name of promoting the sport and are tax-exempt.

We have a (great!) Finnish BJJ Federation, who supports these kind of non-federation comps, and we can use their signing up and division/bracket/scoreboard system for free for all the events (similar to SmoothComp). The federation is not involved in any other way, just offers their tools for free.

We will always get a medic (not too difficult to find in martial arts) to be there at the competition, but I'm not sure if that is legally required. Ambulance is a call away just like in regular training.

Bigger for-profit events are probably a different matter entirely.

That’s cool! It’s also great that the Finish federation is helping you out! But do you have to ask permission from the federation?
What kind of weaver form the competitor has to sign?
If you go to a stadium is it deferent than in your school legally speaking?

What does the law requires you to have?
In terms of security, health.?
Taxation?
Keep in mind I’m not talking about small events but events that can go up to 500+ people

No permission from the federation is needed. They are a non-profit organization here, but not a governing body for the sport. The gyms can operate entirely independent from them (including events).

No waiver required. Simply announce somewhere that the organizer doesn't insure the competitors (in case of injuries).

Stadium-level events might be different, but sorry I don't know anything about those. :)

It’s supposed to be not profit here as well. But not only you have to ask permission you have to bribe them

Weird I wrote some more stuff but half my post got up

Any info much appreciated

-How does your legal system work in your countries in terms of organizing federations or organizing competition without federations, pro or amateur?

Organizations that want IOC recognition need to work with Team USA in my understanding, but outside that an organization is just a business and anyone can start a "federation" by making a business. For example, I could start "Drew's Really Awesome Jiu-Jitsu Federation" and do pretty much whatever I want in terms of hosting grappling competitions without too much government oversight. One big caveat is that the US can be a bit litigious so I'd definitely want to make sure I had insurance, had trained my referees, and had medical staff onsite so I could argue I've done everything that could be reasonably expected of me to ensure the safety of the competitors. Another thing to consider is that this applies to anything not otherwise governed. I couldn't do this for boxing or MMA because commissions exist for those (but the rules for these vary by state so what I can't do in Wisconsin someone else may be able to do elsewhere within the US). This starts getting fuzzy and some states have issues where they can't hold Combat Sambo tournaments (because the law may consider it AMMA, requiring oversight by a commission that won't permit the event) while other states are looser in their definitions and would allow it (and/or have more permissive commissions that would allow it). I'm not actually sure if I could do a CJJ tournament here without red tape for example, but I know enough MMA promoters that I could probably get something together if I really had to.


-Are you able/allowed to have deferent federations for example 2 or 3 Bjj federations?

Oh yeah. Even for judo we have USA Judo, USJA, USJF, and AAU. There's definitely nothing stopping anyone from making a new BJJ Federation in the US.


I'll avoid discussing taxation and safety requirements because those are substantially more varied in the US depending on the state and local governments, what, if any, organization you're operating under, and how your business is incorporated. I'd strongly advise anyone in the US speak with a local tax attorney to understand what taxes may be applicable to their events for their location and circumstances. As noted above, for safety I'd expect you'd need to have medical staff onsite, likely have everyone involved sign waivers, and show that your referees are trained to be able to keep the athletes safe (stopping a match when someone goes out, but I'm not sure how much of that is mandated versus just a good idea to help mitigate litigation.

I've hosted a number of tournaments in Moldova as well as the US. In both cases there was minimal bureaucratic red tape. In Moldova I partnered with a Moldovan, and he handled everything from securing event space to letting everyone know that we were going to have a tournament, so I can't say for sure what else was involved (my wife and I handled the logistics of the actual tournament). I suspect that since BJJ has developed quite a bit since we last hosted a tournament, that there are definitely more requirements for hosting a tournament there.

In the US you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want, as long as there's no striking involved (in that case you'd presumably have to go through a boxing commission). It's a good idea to have insurance and to have everyone sign a waver so you can try and avoid getting sued, but we really didn't have to do much other than just hold a tournament. There weren't any special taxes or permits that we had to pay/secure. We definitely don't have to be part of any federation or anything like that. We never had a medic on duty, but I think that we were fairly lucky the last few times and we will definitely try and hire someone next time.

No requirements. Some events had a doctor there, but like Tatu say, an ambulance / emergency room is just a call/drive away. No different than any other regular training. Everybody has access to free health care if anything happens, so nobody bothers about insurance, waivers, etc. Not an issue.

Taxation is no different than any other business/private/org hosting a sports event. Meaning, it has nothing to do with the type of event, but just how you decide to structure it business-wise.

I'm assuming you're not intentionally lording this over those of us from the US, but I feel envy for how much easier this must make things for you. :)

Never once had to think about insurance, healthcare, lawsuits etc. in 15 years of running academies and competitions, so yeah I guess pretty easy :D

Thank you all! This is very helpful. Any French or English tournaments guys here to shed some light :)

Illegal in Quebec in Canada. Everything was great until a few years ago when 2 rival promoters started to call cops on each other. Assholes messed up tournaments for everyone here. Now things have to be part of a federation before being recognized and all this is taking its time.

Well In our case everything was fked up from the start ... sad for Canada sorry to hear that.

Just in Quebec province. Rest of Canada is still good.