“I came into the role in May 2025, Tonino has been a great help, supporting me at all times. He did a great job and is still involved despite ‘retiring.’
I was a supervisor with the IJF for a short time at the beginning of this year and so stopped my work with the German federation. I was asked by the IJF President if I would like to take on this new challenge and I thought it would be very interesting, a new task. I now work to administrate the good, consistent and smooth running of all IJF referee tasks.
There are many challenges, as with any new role but the biggest is perhaps the magnitude of the field. This job is not just about the refereeing we see on the tatami of the World Judo Tour. There are examinations, other competitions and of course education seminars. It’s a broad task and if you’re not involved in all of this, much of it is perhaps invisible.
With so much to do and so much variety in the role, I am always busy and that is no bad thing. I am enjoying working with my refereeing colleagues in refereeing and am learning all the time, especially with the new rule updates for this Olympic cycle.
We are already working systematically and at a high level but I aim to improve some digital procedures to make more time to work practically and be together. This is a very motivated team of referees. All the staff who are close to the referees are also so positive and driven to keep standards high. With everyone wanting to work in a positive way to improve the level of each aspect of our remit, this makes it possible to achieve anything and so I am looking forward to the future.”
Frank’s smooth transition into the role illustrates his professionalism and experience, a judoka at heart. Welcome to the team!