VENICE - Great Britain can send just one mahjong player to the next European championship. Johannes Scott-Weijers (number 27 in the EMA ranking) and Chris Redmond (he is number 68 in the EMA ranking) are not amused.

Problem is, there are two strong British players. They are also the only British players who participate in international tournaments.

Johannes Scott-Weijers recently won the Open Baden 2010 Tournament in Austria, the Green Dragon Tournament in Budapest and he also was the winner of the Sisi Cup 2010 for the best accumulated scores in the Hungarian and Austrian championships 2010. Johannes, however, would prefer to boycott the OEMC 2011 because he totally disagrees with the qualification system; more about that later. But he also considers himself qualified “as the best UK player”.

Chris Redmond also won some trophies, although his greatest successes date back from 2008, when he was the winner of the Golden Dragon Tournament and the runner-up in the Tilehog Tournament, both in Holland.

Problem is, neither of them is a member of the British Mah-Jong Association.

Problem is, the UKMA does not know the least thing about the qualification for the OEMC2011. UKMA concentrates on riichi mahjong and has never organized one single MCR tournament.

To make it even more complicated: neither Johannes Scott-Weijers nor Chris Redmond live in the UK. Johannes lives at Dunaújváros in Hungary, while Chris Redmond lives in Germany.

Extra space?

Marco Milandri of the Italian Mah Jong Federation says the organizing committee of the OEMC will contact the British organization about the qualification. Ian Fraser, president of the British mahjong league: "The UKMA Committee has no knowledge of the people concerned, and not much more than a working knowledge of MCR rules.”

But how to decide which one of the two British players can come and play at Mestre? Ian Fraser hopes that the problem will solve itself if the British will get an extra space or spaces closer to the event. Which may happen if other countries fail to fill their quotas.

Neither of the two British MCR-players is amused. “It would be a shame not to be able to take part, or at least have the opportunity to qualify”, says Chris Redmond. Until now, he has had no contact with the British mahjong organization, “and I have no knowledge of who now is running the UKMA, if there is one.”

He thinks it’s a shame UKMA hasn't tried to contact him. “Most people know me, or the very least can see that I am active and on the EMA ranking list.”

Discrimination

Johannes Scott-Weijers (‘Sorry if I appear hot under the collar - I am!’) is even less amused than Chris.  “The tournament portrays itself as European, but it discriminates against players here. The fact is that there are two strong Swiss, two strong UK tournament players and no Slovak players. (Slovakia has a right to send two players to Venice.)

“If that can't be taken into account while inviting a few dozen non-European players, I would rather not make the effort and prefer to boycott OEMC2011.”

Johannes totally disagrees with Swiss player Bo lang, who generously has refrained from qualification on behalf of her friend Hwa Mei Felder. “I think her generosity in bowing out is misguided. I'm all in favor of tournaments open to everyone, but not at the total disregard of facts on the ground.”

Defunct

Scott-Weijers disputes the validity of the Slovak mahjong association, “which I believe is now defunct in all but name and website”. His fellow-countryman Chris Redmond reminds that “up until now, if a nation has a national association then there have always been at least two places allocated to them.”

But EMA vice-president Tina Christensen claims that there was not yet a UK association at the time the quotas for OEMC 2011 were decided. “Therefore the UK quota is very limited”, she says. The UKMA will not be formally adopted as a member of EMA until the general assembly next summer in Italy.

Tina Christensen: “The UKMA is currently focussed on riichi, and would not necessarily know any British MCR players. As far as I know, no active British MCR players are living in the UK. So strengthening MCR in UKMA is not an easy task.”

“I guess”, adds Mrs. Christensen, “that since the UKMA was formed after the quotas were settled, you could argue that the part responsible for the UK qualification is either the organizers or EMA. The same is the case for countries without organizations.”

This article originally was written for the OEMC 2011 website