After the Israeli women team’s controversial withdrawal, the news reaches us of another team gone missing: the Argentinian senior team will not go to Bali. In its place the Dutch senior team will play.
The President of the South American Bridge Federation (CSB), Ernesto D’Orsi, told us that following Argentina’s withdrawal (Zone 3 – South America) the vacant place “ was offered to every other SA Country that participated in the trials. They refused”.
In such circumstances, the WBF rules that “If any Zone does not fill its quota the first berth will be offered to Zone 1, the second to Zone6.” Since no South American team (Zone 3) accepted the invitation, one extra place was available to Europe (Zone 1).
Roland Wald (1) wrote that first of all Israel has been invited to replace Argentina, since Israel senior team ended up seventh in Dublin 2012’s European Championships. However Israel did not accept the invitation for similar controversial reasons that led to the Israeli women’s withdrawal. (2)
As a consequence the WBF invited the Netherlands to replace Argentina, because Netherlands ended up eight in Dublin. The Dutch Bridge Federation accepted and on 4th of August announced the team who will take part in the D’Orsi Senior Bowl in Bali 2013: Anton Maas – Bep Vriend, Koos Vrieze – Onno Janssens, Loek Verhees sr. – Chris Niemeijer.
We asked Roberto Vigil, Vice-president of the Argentinian Bridge Federation (ABA – Asociación del Bridge Argentino) and member of the senior team, to explain why they decided to withdraw. This is his answer:
Argentina competed with two teams for the South American Senior Championship, which qualifies for WC in Bali. To cut a long story short, many things added up so that we couldn´t send a team to the WC. These are the reasons:
1) No official help from government
2) Personal problems
3) Long trip for seniors (40/44 hours trip time)
4) Other senior players, when not qualified, arranged other activities during Bali tournament
5) Lack of interest in visiting this location and surroundings
6) Airline tickets cost more than double than flying to some location in Europe, or three times more than ticket to USA, for example
These facts added up and we couldn´t make it. I believe Asia is too far away for seniors. I´m the baby senior with 61 here; most have seventy something and even one in my team who is 89 years old!
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Laura Camponeschi
1) On 9th of August Roland Wald wrote this post at BridgeWinners.com : “About two weeks ago, the WBF informed the IBF that due to Argentina’s withdrawal Europe would get another spot and that Israel was next in line. Israel was asked if they were interested, and the reply from the IBF was that the Israeli seniors would like to take part. However, for that to happen the WBF would have to assist in arranging a dialogue about security with the authorities in Indonesia. The IBF was still prepared, despite the short notice, to send both teams, women as well as seniors, to Bali. This proves that “Israel withdrew” is false. The WBF responded that arranging a security dialogue with Indonesia would be impossible. Consequently, if Israel chose to decline on that condition, the invitation would be passed on to The Netherlands […].
2) Read Neapolitan Club’s articles about Israel’s withdrawal:
Hanan Sher speaks about Israel’s withdrawal >>