Section IV. REFEREEING COMMISSION

Article 30. Composition of the Refereeing Commission

1. Composition of the Refereeing Commission shall be recommended by the corresponding federation of the universal fight and shall be approved by the organization holding the competition not later than 20 days prior to the start of the competition.
2. The Refereeing Commission shall include: the Chief Referee and the Deputy Chief Referee, heads of the Refereeing Teams for the first and the second events of the double event, the Chief Secretary and the Deputy Chief Secretary, the Refereeing Teams of the obstacle course and contests on the tatami, the Information Officer, the Doctor and the Competition Manager. Calculation of the number of refereeing officials is provided in Appendix 8. In certain cases a member of the national or international refereeing commission may be appointed the Inspector of the competition by a National or International Federation.
3. The Refereeing Team of the obstacle course shall include:
    - 1 Referee on the start and finish,
    - 2 Referees on the obstacle course (1 Referee for each direction),
    - 2 Referees at the firing line and at the knife throwing line (1 Referee for each direction),
    - the Administrative Referee.
4. The Refereeing Team of the contests on the tatami shall include: the Referee, two Corner Judges, the Timekeeper, the Technical Secretary and the Scoreboard Keeper.
5. The refereeing official must be attired in the referee‘s uniform, must hold a referee‘s card, have the Rules available and have good knowledge of these Rules.
6. The referee’s uniform shall consist of black trousers, white shirt with short sleeves coming down to the elbow joint and the red armband (on the left arm) and the blue armband (on the right arm), black bowtie, black soft flat sports footwear and black socks. The official badge of the referee of the corresponding category shall be worn on the left side of the shirt.
Notes:
1. International Category, Extra-Category and „A“ Category Referees may act as the Chief Referees and the Inspectors of international competitions, national championships, cups and competitions.
2. Referees on probation may be admitted to officiating at the competition, but they shall comprise not more than 30 per cent of the total number of the members of the Refereeing Commission.

Article 31. Inspector, Chief Referee, Deputy Chief Referee

1. The Chief Referee shall manage the competition and shall be accountable for conducting the competition in compliance with these Rules and the Regulations to the organization holding the competition and the corresponding federation of the universal fight.
2. The Deputy Chief Referee shall be appointed by the Chief Referee from among the heads of the Refereeing Teams and shall be accountable to and shall discharge commissions of the Chief Referee.
The Deputy Chief Referee shall exercise functions of the Chief Referee in his absence at the competition venue.
3. The Chief Referee shall be bound:
    a) to check readiness for the competition of the premises, facilities, equipment, their compliance with the requirements of these Rules, to draw up the Competition Venue Acceptance Report (see Appendix 9), and to check the availability of the requisite documentation and contest sheet forms;
    b) to appoint the Refereeing Teams for the weigh-in;
    c) to carry out the draw and seeding of the contestants in different sub-groups;
    d) to appoint Referees to the Refereeing Teams;
    e) to approve the schedule of the competition;
    f) to make all arrangements for excluding and in case of necessity for eliminating errors made by refereeing officials;
    g) to make decisions regarding applications lodged by the team representatives in conformity with Art. 29 herein above (in the absence of the Inspector at the competition);
    h) to conduct meetings of the Refereeing Commission involving the team representatives before the start of the competition (for announcing the schedule and procedure of work of the Refereeing Commission) and daily meetings after the end of the competition day (for discussing the progress of the competition and the results of the day), as well as in other cases when it is required in the course of the competition;
    i) to approve composition of pairs for the finals and to appoint the Refereeing Teams for the final contests;
    j) to assess refereeing of each member of the Refereeing Commission (taking into consideration the opinion of his immediate superior) on the basis of a five-point system;
    k) to submit the Report (see Appendix 10.1) to the organization holding the competition in due time.
4. The Chief Referee shall have the right:
    a) to adjourn the competition, provided the competition venue, the facilities or the equipment appear not to comply with the Rules prior to the start of the competition;
    b) to halt a contest, to make a break and even to stop the competition, if unfavourable conditions hinder the proper running of the competition;
    c) to introduce alterations in the program and schedule of the competition, to change the order of contests in case of extreme necessity;
    d) to change the responsibilities of refereeing officials in the course of the competition;
    e) to remove from officiating duties refereeing officials having committed rough errors or failing to perform duties assigned to them;
    f) to exclude contestants from the contest or the competition in compliance with the Art. 19 herein above;
    g) to give a verbal warning, a warning, to remove from their duties representatives (captains) and cornermen of the teams for roughing, starting an argument with the refereeing officials, or for lodging ungrounded applications;
    h) to suspend the announcement of the judgement of the result of overcoming the obstacle course, a technical action, or the result of a contest, in case the refereeing officials hold different opinions, or the Chief Referee disagrees with the decision of the refereeing officials, for additional discussion and awarding the final judgement.
5. Orders of the Chief Referee shall be binding for the contestants, the refereeing officials, cornermen, representatives and coaches of teams.
6. The Inspector of the competition shall make decisions regarding applications (appeals) of the team representatives, assess the quality of officiating and organization of the competition by the Chief Refereeing Commission.
Note:
The Chief Referee shall not be entitled to alter the Regulations of the Competition, to remove from refereeing duties or to replace refereeing officials during passing of the obstacle course by contestants or during a contest.

Article 32. Chief Secretary, Deputy Chief Secretary

1. The Chief Secretary shall manage operation of the Secretariat, which shall ensure preparation and execution of all documents of the competition. The Deputy Chief Secretary shall exercise functions of the Chief Secretary on the instructions of the Chief Secretary or in his absence.
2. In discharge of his duties the Chief Secretary shall:
    a) be a member of the Credentials Committee and the Refereeing Team at the weigh-in;
    b) participate at the draw;
    c) work out the schedule of the competition;
    d) work out the order of contests by rounds;
    e) keep the official records and scores of the competition;
    f) superintend execution of the contest sheets;
    g) draw up instructions and decisions of the Chief Referee;
    h) draw up results of the competition and submit to the Chief Referee for approval;
    i) by authority of the Chief Referee, provide information to the representatives, Information Officers and the press;
    j) certify the results of contests and places won by contestants in the competitor’s passports;
    k) assess work of Referees - members of the Secretariat on the basis of a five-point system;
    l) provide the Chief Referee information necessary for the Final Report.

Article 33. Mat Chairman

1. The head of the Refereeing Team shall discharge functions of the Chief Referee on his tatami (mat), should the contests be held on two or more tatami.
2. During the contest, the Mat Chairman shall take position at the referee table and manage the work of the Refereeing Team.
3. In discharge of his duties the Mat Chairman shall:
    а) form Refereeing Teams for contests aiming for observing the requirement for neutrality of the refereeing officials (the Referee or the Judge shall not be the member of the same team with the contestant, whose contest he is officiating, and there shall not be two Referees or Judges being members of the same team);
    b) call to the tatami and introduce the contestants (in the absence of the Information Officer);
    c) taking into consideration the opinion of the majority of three, announce the decision regarding judgement of the actions of the contestants and the situation, accompanying the same with the established terms and gestures (see Appendix 11);
    d) in case of necessity and of significant difference of opinions of the Refereeing Team, halt the contest and make the final decision following additional discussion of the controversial issue with the Refereeing Team;
    e) in absence of the score at the end of a round, organize a vote of the Refereeing Team to determine the more active contestant;
    f) by request of the Referee, call the Doctor to the tatami in case of injury of one of the contestants;
    g) announce the result of the contest (in the absence of the Information Officer);
    h) assess refereeing of each Referee or Judge assigned to his tatami  on the basis of a five-point system.

Article 34. Referee

1. Before the contest on the tatami, the Referee shall stay in the centre.
The Referee, staying in the centre of the tatami, shall conduct the contest and shall ensure that the contest is held in strict compliance with the Rules. For the purpose, the Referee shall make use of prescribed terms and gestures (see Appendix 11).
2. In discharge of his duties the Referee shall:
    a) make command to start the contest (round) or to resume the contest in the fighting stance in the middle of the tatami after a break in the contest;
    b) take part in the announcement of the result of the contest.
3. The Referee shall halt the contest by the command “Stop” in the following cases:
    a) the contestants appeared in the position “outside the tatami”;
    b) the competitor does not perform any technical acts within 5 seconds after applying a hold in the fighting stance;
    c) a hold has not been made for applying a pain compliance technique or a strangling technique within 5 seconds during the ground fight;
    d) after 20 seconds following a hold for applying a pain compliance technique or a strangling technique, if these technical acts has not resulted in the surrender of the opponent;
    e) one of the contestants needs medical assistance, or disarrangement of the contestant’s uniform has been noticed, accompanied by the signal “Record the time”; in case of injury the Referee shall call the Doctor to the tatami and stay nearby while medical assistance is rendered;
    f) a contestant has infringed the Rules or is attempting to commit a prohibited act, and it is necessary to announce him a verbal warning or a warning;
    g) a gong signal has been given to indicate the end of the round. Besides, the Referee shall halt the contest by the command “Stop”;
    h) on demand of the Mat Chairman;
    i) on demand of the Corner Judge, if the Referee considers this possible at the moment;
    j) at request of a contestant, if the Referee considers this possible at the moment;
    k) the Referee requires consultation in cases not provided for by the Rules.
4. The Referee shall halt the contest in the following cases:
    а) according to the gong signal, when the time allotted for the contest expires;
    b) according to the  surrender signal shown by the contestant, to whom  a pain compliance technique or a strangling technique has been applied;
    c) if the Referee considers that one of the contestants has been won by a pain compliance technique or a strangling technique during contests between youths and not lower than first-class adult contestants (i.e. the hold has been executed properly, it is impossible to escape, and it is apparent that the further execution of the technique may result in an injury).
5. As soon as one of the contestants start applying a pain compliance (a strangling) technique, the Referee must loudly announce “Pain hold (strangling)”, accompanying it with a corresponding gesture.
While a pain compliance (a strangling) technique is being applied, for which 20 seconds are allotted, the Referee shall repeat audibly for the contestants announcements of the Timekeeper. If the attacker fails to reach the corresponding result, upon completion of the time allotted for the technique the Referee shall halt the contest announcing: “Pain hold (strangling) not valid!”, and shall resume it in the fighting stance in the middle of the tatami. The Referee shall behave in the stated manner in case the attacked shall adopt the position, which makes execution of the technique by the attacker ineffective.
6. If during the ground fight the defending contestant makes a prohibited technique, the Referee, without halting the contest, shall require from him to stop applying the prohibited technique and shall give him the next warning. In case the contestant disobeys, the procedure shall be repeated. If the third warning is to be announced to the same contestant, the Referee shall halt the contest and exclude the said contestant from the contest by the decision of the Chief Referee.

Article 38. Corner Judge

1. Before the start of the contest on the tatami, the Corner Judges shall place themselves outside the tatami at the corners of the tatami opposite each other. During the contest they together with the Referee shall exert complete control over the situation on the tatami.
2. The Corner Judge shall at his own discretion assess actions of contestants, indicating his scorings by the established gestures (see Appendix 11). He shall participate in evaluation of the more active contestant.
3. In case, in the Corner Judge’s opinion, it is necessary to halt the contest, he shall attract the Referee’s attention and point out to him one or another moment of the contest.

Article 39. Timekeeper

1. During the competition on the obstacle course, the Timekeeper shall register the time of passing the obstacle course by the contestants and the time spent for rendering medical assistance.
2. During the contest on the tatami, the Timekeeper shall take position at the referee table and shall register the contest time.
Upon command of the Referee „Fight!“, the Timekeeper shall start the timing device; upon expiry of the succeeding minute, the Timekeeper shall inform the Referees, Judges and the contestants about the elapsed time of the contest, upon expiry of half of the time allotted for the round, the Timekeeper shall inform the Mat Chairman; the Timekeeper shall inform about the end of the round by banging a gong.
3. The Timekeeper shall record by means of a timing device as follows:
    a) delay in appearing of the contestant at the starting line of the obstacle course or on the tatami after the repeated call (after 1 min.), the Timekeeper shall announce the time of delay: 20 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute;
    b) real contest time (between commands of the Referee „Fight!“ and „Stop!”);
    c) time allotted for the application of pain compliance and strangling techniques in the ground fight (up to 20 sec.);
    d) time spent by the contestants during the contest for getting medical assistance and for re-adjustment of the contestant’s uniform (see Art. 6 sub-paragraph 2 “e”);
    e) time of breaks between the rounds; the Timekeeper shall give the command “Cornermen, out of the tatami!” 5 seconds before the end of the break.
4. In case the contest is halted due to an injury of a contestant, upon command of the Referee „Record the time“, the Timekeeper shall start another timing device and shall announce the time used by the contestant upon expiry of each minute.
5. As soon as the Referee announces “Pain hold (strangling)!”, the Timekeeper shall start the second timing device and shall count the time announcing the time allotted for the application of the technique every 5 sec. Upon expiry of 20 minutes, the Timekeeper shall announce: “End of pain hold (strangling)!”.
6.Resetting of the timing devices after the end of a contest shall be carried out by the Timekeeper only on demand of the Mat Chairman.

Article 40. Technical Secretary

1. The Technical Secretary shall enter in the corresponding columns of the section “Obstacle Course” of the contest sheet (see Appendix 2.3) the results of passing stages of the course by contestants based on the data provided by the Referees officiating these stages.
2. During the contest on the tatami, the Technical Secretary shall take position at the referee table next to the Mat Chairman and shall enter in the corresponding columns of the section “Contest on the Tatami” of the contest sheet the scores given for technical acts, verbal warnings and points awarded for warnings, which the Mat Chairman shall announce in the course of the contest.
3. Scores given for techniques in order of execution by the contestants, as well as verbal warnings and points awarded to a contestant for warnings given to the opponent for infringement of the Rules shall be entered into the contest sheet as the following conventional symbols:
    Х – clear win,
    3 – three points,
    2 – two points,
    1 – one point,
    Аr – activity by the decision of the Referees,
    P1 – one point awarded for the 1st warning given to the opponent,
    P2 – two points awarded for the 2nd warning given to the opponent,
    EХ – exclusion of the opponent from the contest for infringement of the Rules,
    EС – exclusion of the opponent from the competition for infringement of the Rules.
The symbol “+” shall be placed before the first scores given for technical acts. Clear win shall be recorded by the symbol “X” with an explanation:  pain compliance technique, strangling.
The symbol “n/a” (not arrived) or “ebd” (excluded by the Doctor) shall be entered beside the surname of a contestant in case of his non-appearance to the contest.
4. After the end of a round, the Technical Secretary shall:
    - summarize points for technical actions and warnings scored by each contestant and enter them into the contest sheet;
    - submit the contest sheet to the Mat Chairman for determination and announcement of the winner of the round;
    - enter the said result to the contest sheet.
5. After the end of the contest, the Technical Secretary shall enter into the contest sheet total points scored by each contestant for the rounds won, and shall submit the contest sheet to the Mat Chairman for determination and announcement of the winner of the contest on the tatami.
In case the contest is stopped before the end of the allotted time, the result and the real time of the contest shall be registered in the contest sheet. The time spent by the contestants for getting medical assistance and re-adjustment of the contestant’s uniform shall be noted to the left from the surnames of the contestants.
6. Then the Technical Secretary shall summarize points scored by each contestant on the obstacle course and during the contest on the tatami, shall enter them into the contest sheet and shall submit the contest sheet to the Mat Chairman for determination and announcement of the overall result of the contest.
The surname of the winner shall be circled. It is prohibited to enter other records into the contest sheet.

Article 41. Scoreboard Keeper. Information Officer

1. The Scoreboard Keeper shall record on the scoreboard all points scored for technical actions of the contestants and infringements of the Rules, which have been announced by the Mat Chairman in the course of the contest.
The Scoreboard Keeper shall check up with the Mat Chairman in case of any doubt whether he has heard the announced score correctly.
The Scoreboard Keeper shall reset the scoreboard after the end of a contest only on demand of the Mat Chairman.
2. The Information Officer shall be responsible for the arrangement of radio information about the conditions, the course and the preliminary score of the competition for the contestants, representatives and the spectators. He must have good knowledge of the Regulations on the Competition, track records of teams and contestants.
The Information Officer shall:
    а) in due time announce the program and order of the competition,  instructions and suggestions of the Refereeing Commission given in the course of the competition;
    b) introduce participants of the next contest, announce their track records, announce results of contests and clarify separate provisions of the Rules of the Competition notifying on the best results achieved in the course of the competition;
    c) upon authorization of the Chief Referee, announce the final (official) results of the competition.
3. Depending on the type of information equipment, functions of the Scoreboard Keeper and the Timekeeper or the Technical Secretary are allowed to be combined.
4. In the absence of the Information Officer, the Mat Chairman shall introduce the Refereeing Team of the tatami, shall call to the tatami and introduce the next pair of contestants, shall announce the scores given for technical actions in the course of the contest, and shall announce the result after the end of the contest.

Article 42. Administrative Referee

1. The Administrative Referee shall organize the entrance of the contestants to the competition venue and for distribution of awards, shall array the contestants for parade, in due time shall inform the contestants about the order of their arrival to the competition venue, shall check surnames of the contestants according to the contest sheet and the compliance of their uniform with the requirements of these Rules, shall notify the Chief Secretary on non-arrivals, cases of withdrawals from the competition and exclusions of contestants from the competition.

Article 43. Doctor of the Competition

1. The Doctor of the Competition shall be a member of the Refereeing Commission being the Deputy Chief Referee on medical issues, and shall take part in its work.
2. In discharge of his duties the Doctor of the Competition shall:
    a) check correctness of applications, the presence of the doctor’s record granting admittance of the contestants to the competition;
    b) carry out external inspection of the contestants during the weigh-in;
    c) watch over compliance with the hygiene requirements in the competition venues;
    d) carry out medical examination and medical supervision of the contestants in the course of the competition;
    e) directly on the tatami render medical assistance to the contestants, draw conclusion about possibility to continue the contest (competition), promptly reports about it to the Chief Referee of the competition and provide him a corresponding certificate, which afterwards shall be submitted to the secretariat;
    f) at the end of the competition submit the report regarding health service support of the competition stating cases of disease and injuries (see Appendix 10.2).
3. Medical officers and their location area must have clearly visible distinctive marks.

Article 44. Competition Manager 

1.The Competition Manager shall be responsible for the following:
- preparation and arrangement of the competition venues;
- availability and good condition of the necessary equipment;
- installation of the radio broadcast network;
- security, accommodation and servicing of the participants and the spectators, maintaining order during the competition, and ensure all necessary arrangements on demand of the Chief Referee and the representative of the organization holding the competition.

Section V ⇒