Mellieha Judo Club becomes Yukizuna Judo Club

A little bit of context

• Wasn't Mellieha Judo Club, a club, already?
  From a legal point of view, Mellieha Judo Club has never been official. No company, no voluntary organisation, no Federation nor national recognition.
• What is the "club" I trained at?
  Mellieha Judo Club was, somehow, a subsidiary of the Malta Judo Academy, in Mellieha. Our Facebook page reflects that name for example.
• Is it legal?
  Since 2021 and the introduction of the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport, this arrangement became obsolete as it was not compliant with the Maltese Sport Law.
• Why the change late, in 2024?
  Because of a simple lack of knowledge, communication and proper administration.
• Are we compliant now?
  At the time of writing these lines, almost.
• Ok. What's new?
  Sit down tight, this article will disclose everything you need to know. Step by step.

Introduction of Yukizuna Judo Club

The 24th of May 2024, the Yukizuna Judo Club Statute was signed officially by its new Executive Committee composed of Nico as President, David as Secretary and Yetta as Treasurer.

About the name? Well, "Yukizuna" came up 48h only before we signed the Statute. The strong opportunity of opening another dojo in a second town came up and none of us enjoyed the idea to call another dojo "Mellihea". So we looked for a name that could be welcomed by all. In japanese, "Yuki" means courage as shown on the Judo Moral Code. "Kizuna" means "a bond between people". We found these notions to illustrate our values well enough to make a name out of it.

The "Malta Judo Academy - Mellieha" does not exist anymore since the 1st of January 2025.

At the time of writing, Yukizuna Judo Club is awaiting progress from the Malta Judo Federation. However, the work is still ongoing and we have good hope that legal efforts will lead to full compliance.

Origin and progress

David and Nico teamed up at the end of November 2023 around an idea. David would focus on the tatami as the head coach and Nico would take care of all the rest. This is how, in January, Nico started research on "how to create a judo club in Malta".

After weeks of navigating through a thick fog, the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport helped us by providing a clear process and a list of requirements. Note that the Federation itself discovered this process following our multiple requests.

David enrolled with the Undergraduate Certificate as Judo Instructor program from the IJF Academy for 18 weeks.

Meanwhile, Nico kept going on with:

• Understanding of the judo community in Malta.
• Identifying how to collaborate with the Federation (affiliation, memberships, competitions, gradings...).
• Defining and documenting our new governance (policies, processes).
• Improving our members' experience through a centralised, structured and transparent communication.
• Getting assisted by a lawyer in redacting our Statute and navigating all registration processes.
• Building and executing a growth action plan across all aspects of the club (experience, finances, IT, legal, strategy, learning programs, safety...).

What next?

This website is one of the many achievements of Yukizuna Judo Club's structuration. You are invited to explore:

• the documentation where most of questions asked by our members in the last 12 months have been answered and documented,
• the about page,
• the handbook where the backstage is documented in an effort of transparency,
• all future events published as soon as we receive them (you can click on some of them for more details).

Feel free to contact us if you have any question and submit your contributions to improve the documentation.