I wish you all a happy 2014. Work, health and trial, if possible a lot of trials of the good federated or not, to be able to forget at least for a few moments our worries and the problems that lie in wait for us, and to be able to share some good moments of sport in nature with our friends during those moments.
Why is that what it’s all about, right? Do we do trials for sport and pleasure or do we do it to be champions and to make a living?
I don’t know if Bou and the four tops follow these blogs, but it seems to me that They are the only ones who have found in the practice of trial a way to make a living; since it is a huge economic and personal effort for the rest of us mortals to be able to enjoy a few brief quality trial moments a year.
Economic and personal effort added to the bureaucratic and legal obstacles They make us not criminals as some would have us believe we are; but in True Heroes Fighting for Their Rights, who fight to be able to have access to the sport they have decided to practice, who fight to have access to the natural environment in a different, contrastably clean way, in some cases beneficial to nature, economically beneficial for some sectors and that we have the right to do by justice; trial.
THE SPORT YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO PLAY
Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, or Joseph Stalin as he was known in Spain, was for many years the president of the Soviet Union. An ally of Churchill and Roosevelt against the Nazis, he ruled the USSR with an iron fist and from his coming to power he gradually suffocated all opposition groups and created the most bureaucratic and unjust state that has existed in the history of humanity. You couldn’t eat if you didn’t have the papers that allowed you to do so.
Moreover, by the time of his death, Stalin had become the world’s greatest butcher above Hitler thanks to the massive repression in which millions and millions of people who opposed him were executed. This did not prevent Stalin from having a huge following inside and outside the USSR and even, ironically, from being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 and 1948.
In this article I do not intend to compare the greatest butcher in history with anyone; nor to the most unjust state that has ever existed with our state or institutions. They are just one extreme example; A resource to show how a certain way of organizing and doing things that may seem good in the eyes of some, may actually be causing enormous harm to others.
But let’s get to the bottom of the matter; Trial is not a sport for the masses. It never has been and never will be, although it has known better times. Actually, and speaking of trials, it is true that “past times were always better”.
The trial pyramid isheaded by the so-called top riders; Bou, Cabestany, Fajardo, Fujinami, Raga and Laia Sainz. Six pilots.
On a second step are those who would like to belong to that elite that charges for doing trials; Casales, Tarrés, Moret, Traviesa, Fernández-Sancho, Noguera, Martin, Sandra Gómez, Mireia Conde and a few others. 12 pilots in this echelon? I don’t think many more.
Below that pyramid on the third step are the young leading drivers at the local level who, even though they are amateurs, their goal is to put their heads in that second step, although in honor of the truth; There are fewer and fewer of these. In some territorial championships such as the Madrid one, even the most difficult category has disappeared due to a lack of riders with a sufficient level. Arguably, even this third rung of the pyramid may have been inverted and is smaller than the second. 40 pilots in this echelon in the whole of Spain? I think too generous, but let’s leave it at 40.
Up to this point, we have of course only talked about the modern trial, since of course the classic trial is non-existent in those three upper echelons.
Wrapping Up The fourth and final step of novice pilots or simple modern and classic amateurs who practice trial federated or not, not to earn a living or to try to earn it in the future, but with the last and “twisted” objective that we have mentioned before doing sport and having a good time. Of these trial crushers there are about 500 federated riders and surely many more than 500 in the shadows who do not get their license, nor will they get it as things are.
In other words, the Spanish trial pyramid is
Roughly like this:
The fact that the trial pyramid is so accentuated is not a problem. In fact, the more accentuated it is, the more successful the trial in a country is in terms of number of practitioners, as an extreme example the trial pyramid in the UK, having fewer tops and contenders than we do, has an overwhelmingly higher number of both local tops and simple amateurs.
What they do well is that their organization of the sport focuses on getting a greater number of fans based on easy bureaucracy and very low costs for drivers and clubs, seeking the resources for elite sport in other ways.
Whereas we focus on getting degrees to get grants, and these grants are spent on elite sport and maintaining a system and not on grassroots sport.
That’s why there are so few of us and that’s why our sport is so expensive.
The new year 2014 has brought us an increase in the price of trial licenses. €261 compared to €210 in 2013. Almost a 25% increase. The blame is placed on the insurers who are said to be the cause of the price of our licenses being so high. I don’t believe anything.
My 2013 license clearly specified how the pie is divided:
Of last year’s €210, €47.95 goes to the RFME, €102.05 goes to Fedemadrid and €60 goes to insurance companies;
In other words, the 2013 pie was divided as follows : 71.43% for federations and 28.57% for insurance:
In2014 I suppose that all concepts will have gone up, not just insurance, although let’s assume that the share of the federation pie remains the same and that only the part of the insurers has gone up. So from €261 €47.95 would go to the RFME, €102.05 to Fedemadrid and €111 to insurance.
In other words, the 2014 cake would be split like this; 57.47% for federations and 42.53% for insurance:
Although I’m sure the insurance pie is smaller. The worst thing is not the proportions, which in reality is only a justification of an unjust reality, the worst thing is the absolute numbers.
The UK fan license costs a total of €10, i.e. €12 and not €261 as here. For those who want to check it out:
In other words, the RFME takes 4 times more than the ACU license.
In other words, Fedemadrid takes 8.5 times more than the ACU license.
In other words, the total 2014 licence of €261 is equivalent to 21.75 times more, or 2175% more expensive than the licence they pay in the UK and which gives them the same benefits as us.
Well, I don’t understand anything. Well , I do understand with this data why in the United Kingdom there are more than 14,000 licenses. I also understand with this data why in the UK there are more than 40 trials every weekend.
We know where the insurance portion of our license goes; well we think we know… But where does the more than €80,000 that the federations collect every year with trial licenses end?
Poor justification for insurance in a sport with a very low accident rate. In a sport d
Where, according to the pyramid, the vast majority practice a very low-risk trial. In a sport where the vast majority of low-risk fans participate in the lower categories; Yellow.
Whether or not we jump through the hoops of paying for the license, Trial fans do not agree at all with the policies and way of managing our sport. Bureaucracy, organization and the legal impossibility of acting otherwise hinder fans and clubs, turning trial into a sport that cannot be practiced. will become less and less accessible in the future, A sport in which changing the system is impossible as the votes of the drivers and paganinis are very limited. Thus, reminding us in many cases of certain policies of Stalin.
Javier Cruz
