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On Friday 16^th February 2024, England Kabaddi Federation (UK) successfully defended the malicious application for an injunction issued in the High Court in London by Ranjit Singh Dhanda and Gurcharan Singh Dhillon against England Kabaddi Federation (UK) and one of its Directors Mr Surinder Singh Manak. 

The sole purpose of this Application was designed to disrupt and possibly even stop the 2024 England Kabaddi Season from taking place.

The list of demands put forward by Ranjit Singh Dhanda and Gurcharan Singh Dhillon can be seen here. 

The Federation had no option but to defend these proceedings. We were legally advised that appointing Directors and/or Executive Committee in the manner sought will be wholly contradictory to the Constitution of the Federation. If such demands were to be accepted the Constitution will need to be amended. The Federation members were not prepared to amend the Constitution as required. 

In the members’ opinion the injunction application was nothing short of an attempt to blackmail and hold the Federation to ransom.

It should be remembered that in September 2014 both Ranjit Singh Dhanda and Gurcharan Singh Dhillon walked out of the Federation meeting and in 2015 they set up a rival federation. The main reason for their walk out was the fact that most of the clubs would not agree to appoint Mr Ranjit Singh Dhanda as the new President. The split was hugely  damaging and at one stage it seemed to spell the end of the game of Kabaddi in UK. In the interest of the sport and putting their personal issues aside under the Presidency of Mr Surinder Singh Manak in 2018 the Federation accepted their demands and appointed Ranjit Singh Dhanda as the joint President and appointed Gurcharan Singh Dhillon as the joint General Secretary.

At the end of the 2022 Kabaddi Season their term formally ended and they along with all other officers were democratically removed from the Board in a meeting on 23^rd November 2022 held at the HQ of Leicester Kabaddi Club. 

After their removal and the Clubs’ refusal to reappoint them they once again walked out. The following day they unlawfully and without authority transferred £17,000.00 from the Federation’s Bank Account into their personal bank accounts. In order to recover this money the Federation was forced to instigate legal proceedings in the County Court. These proceedings are still continuing at Reading and Slough County Court under Claim Number K8QZ7626. 

Clearly these events were the main catalyst for them issuing these Injunction Proceedings in the High Court. The main purpose was to force themselves onto the Board and then somehow Stifel the County Court Proceedings and thereby avoid having to repay the Federation’s money.  

As for also naming Mr Surinder Singh Manak in their High Court Application, it should be noted that Mr Surinder Singh Manak is one of three Directors currently listed at the Companies House. However for some reason they chose to target only one of our three  Directors namely Mr Surinder Singh Manak. 

Further in their application the Applicants sought Power of Arrest against Mr Surinder Singh Manak and thereby potentially threatening not only his personal freedom and liberty but also his livelihood. Even to consider such possibility is wholly ununderstandable when you consider the fact that all our members and officers dedicate their time, skills and efforts completely free of charge and purely on voluntary basis. 

The consequences to his Family and Business of such threat being carried out were unfathomable. 

Even Justice Sheridan, the presiding Judge, at the very start of the hearing expressed a surprise at this strange request.

The hearing was listed for 1 hour but it lasted full 6 hours. Having heard legal arguments from both sides in the end Justice Sheridan dismissed the application and ordered Ranjit Singh Dhanda and Gurcharan Singh Dhillon to pay our legal costs in the sum of £41,327.61 by 15^th March 2024.

The actual costs incurred by the Federation in these matters amounted to over £55,000.00 and as such despite not having done anything wrong the Federation is still out of pocket by nearly £15,000.00.

The Federation was represented by Manak Solicitors where the case was personally handled by our very own Mr Surinder Singh Manak, and he was assisted by one of their experienced litigation Solicitors namely Mr Samir Moftah. We also engaged two barristers namely Counsel Mr John McLinden KC and Counsel Mr Hashim Reza.

Our President Mr Rashpal Singh Athwal and General Secretary Mr Surinder Singh Manak and our Team Manager Mr Baljinder Singh attended the hearing.

Mr Samir Moftah was unable to attend so Miss Holly Cooper clerked the hearing on his behalf.

The Federation wishes to wholeheartedly thank all members of our Legal Team who in a very short period of time did an amazing job and brought this extremely unpleasant episode to a swift and successful end. 

The Federation can now dedicate and concentrate its full efforts unhindered on our main objectives and purposes which are to Govern and Promote the Sport of Kabaddi in UK. 

England Kabaddi Season 2024 will start on 12th May 2024 at Bradford in Yorkshire and continue on weekly basis every Sunday for next 12 weeks.

Full details of all dates and towns are available at https://kabaddiuk.co.uk/tournaments/

The exact addresses of each venue will be announced shortly before the relevant Tournament Date.

After 14 weeks of extensive competition the England Kabaddi Season 2023 concluded on Sunday 17th September at the final tournament of the season in Plumstead Common organised by Erith & Woolwich Kabaddi Club.

It was a fitting end to a brilliant season. Eight Teams took part.

After three out of four first round matches had been played and the host team entered the ground to face their rivals the Slough & Ickenham Kabaddi Club in the final match of the first round the skies opened up. Where shortly before the ground was surrounded by eager Erith & Woolwich Supporters it was now empty as the players, supporters and organisers all rushed to their respective cars and vans for shelter.

For a while it seemed like the season will end in a soaking for all concerned. A few but all had given up hope and were beginning to utter the dreaded words of “Cancelation”.

But the EKF Management Committee and the Tournament organisers held their nerve and decided to see the rain out before making the final decision. After 45 minutes of down pour the weather turned and within 15 minutes the Sun was out again.

The matches resumed and ultimately the hosts namely Erith Woolwich & Southall Kabaddi Club beat Hayes, Medway & Sikh Temple Wolverhampton Kabaddi Club in the Final.

It was a befitting end to the season.

We would like to thank all supporters, promoters, players and EKF Members who provided support (in man power and money) to make this year’s season a huge success. 

We are confident that with this continued support the game of Kabaddi in UK and worldwide will continue to grow and become bigger and better. 

we can’t wait for the next season to start in May 2024. The exact dates of next year’s kabaddi tournaments in UK will be announced and published on this website shortly.

Watch this space!

EKF has made a formal complaint to Ofcom. Against the comments made by Nigel Farrage and Wasim Wasim on GB News on 22/08/2023 where they falsely purport to link the incident at Derby Kabaddi Tournament to a political movement of Khalistan in Punjab India.

The acknowledgement received from Ofcom and details of complaint lodged is set out below. We will update this website further in this regard once the final decision from Ofcom. is received.

Thank you for contacting Ofcom.

Your views are important to us as they help us to ensure that TV channels and radio stations follow our codes and rules.

Ofcom assesses each complaint it receives to decide whether it raises a potential issue under our codes and rules.

Ofcom will not normally write back to you with the outcome of its considerations.

However, please be assured that if your complaint does raise a potential issue, we will start an investigation. Whether or not we believe an investigation is required, your comments and feedback will be considered, and all our decisions are published in our Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin.

We publish our Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin, every fortnight, on our website. It includes the latest decisions about the complaints we’ve received.

Our website has more information about how Ofcom assesses complaints and conducts investigations about programmes broadcast on TV and radio.

Please see below a summary of your complaint:

Subject:

Disinformation, Defamation, Racism and Incitement to Violence and Hate

Description:

I write on behalf of England Kabaddi Federation (EKF) which is the official governing body of Kabaddi in the United Kingdom as its General Secretary to make this formal complaint. Please visit www.kabaddiuk.co.uk for more information about our organisation.

On Tuesday 20/08/2023 around 7:30pm segments of programme aired on GB News with Mr Nigel Farage and guest Mr Wasiq Wasiq demonised the game of Kabaddi and made serious unfounded allegations of there being links between the game of Kabaddi and a political movement of Khalistan based in Punjab India without any evidence to support their allegation.

The segment beings with Farage making a false and unsubstantiated statement that “the finger of blame is being put on Khalistani extremists”. Farage does not say who is placing this finger or what the source is for this assertion. Wasiq Wasiq, an associate fellow of the Henry Jackson Society, is then introduced and positioned as an expert. Wasiq goes on to comment, “The Khalistani movement is a movement mainly based around Sikhism, it is a fringe element of Sikhs who are looking to create their own state within the Punjab region of India and to actually annex it away from India. What we’ve seen here in Derby is that some of that influence and some of what has been happening over in Punjab seem to have been spilled over, because we’ve seen evidence of Khalistani flags there [in Derby] and not only that we’ve seen also some of the weapons that have been used, for example swords”. Wasiq goes on to say “we need to figure out what happened in derby, was that actually a political movement through the use of violence” whilst making claims about terrorism. Again there is no basis for these comments in describing a brawl at a sporting event, which happened to be related to the Sikh community. These comments show how disinformation is used to fuel racism. This racist perspective takes full form when Farage uses this to further demonise Sikhs to tie in with anti-migrant politics. Farage spins a narrative of invasion, criminal gangs and national security threats when he concludes the segment casting Sikh migrants as a threat by saying “what we’ve seen over this year is a much larger number of Sikhs crossing the English Channel”. Fargae then uses this narrative to weave the whole segment together concreting the link between Sikhs, Kabaddi, Khalistan, terrorism, and invasion.

These statements are misleading and factually incorrect.

We as the official governing body of Kabaddi were never contacted or given any right of reply. GB News even failed to check our website and take into account our press release which was posted at https://kabaddiuk.co.uk/news/

True facts of the matter are that on Sunday 20/08/2023 at Derby Kabaddi tournament a fight broke out between unknown individuals in the car park. Initial unconfirmed enquiries indicate that it was a pre-arranged fight between rival gangs based in Midlands. The gangs in question had no links whatsoever with any EKF affiliated club or its members. The Derby Kabaddi tournament appears to have been chosen by these gangs purely at random for reasons only they know. This was the 10th such weekly Kabaddi tournament held this season and it was the first incident of such violence this season. The incident was no different from unfortunate hooliganism and other violent incident suffered by football and other supporting events on much more regular basis. There was no political back drop to the incident whatsoever. The indecent in Derby was a sporting brawl yet the premise of the entire report was demonising Kabaddi. This shows that demonising of the sport of kabaddi and Sikhs was the sole purpose of the segment and it was not any kind of fact based reporting.

By falsely asserting political links between the incident at Derby Kabaddi Tournament and Khalistan, Nigel Farage and his guest Wasiq Wasiq, have sought to create division between Kabaddi organisers, promoters, players and supporters (who are primarily Sikhs) and Hindus with the sole aim of provoking hatred and violence between these communities. We have no doubt you are aware of recent scenes of violent clashes between Sikh and Hindu youths in Leicester and Southall which were totally unrelated to Kabaddi.

We respectfully request that the matters be fully investigated and strongest possible disciplinary action be taken against GB News and Nigel Farage and his guest Wasiq Wasiq.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

We thank you in advance.

Yours
S S Manak LL.B (Hons.)
General Secretary
For & On Behalf of England Kabaddi Federation (UK)

EKF condemns the incident that took place yesterday at Derby Kabaddi Tournament in strongest terms possible.

EKF understands that a fight broke out between unknown individuals in the car park which then spread as far as the entrance gates of the Kabaddi playing areas which as always was secured by 2 meter high mesh security fence.

However, the individuals involved did not get past the crowd barriers protecting the pitch.

While it was a horrific and terrifying incident no by stander (player, official or spectator) was in any way attacked or involved. Initial unconfirmed enquiries indicate that it was a pre-arranged fight between rival gangs based in Midlands.

EKF wishes to emphasise that the gangs in question do not have any links or connections with any EKF affiliated club or its members. The Derby Kabaddi tournament appears to have been chosen by these gangs purely at random for reasons only they know.

The police declared the whole area a crime scene as a result of which EKF was forced to abandon the tournament.

So far we have had no direct contact from the police and despite trying numerously yesterday we were unable to speak to the investigating officers on site. As such we regret that we have no more information regarding the individuals involved or details of any injuries sustained by the persons concerned.

The safety of our players, officials and supporters is always of paramount importance. All clubs are issued with strict guidelines and minimum security requirements for all events.

Ultimately each club is responsible for arranging its own security and liaising with police and other responsible authorities as part of their Event Management Plan.

EKF will assist and cooperate fully with police in order to identify the culprits responsible. Any individuals found to be guilty of any criminal activities will be banned from attending all future EKF events.

In addition, EKF will carry out its own full investigation of the incident and any failures identified on the part of Derby Kabaddi Club will be adequately dealt with in accordance with EKF’s disciplinary procedures. The security and safety guidelines currently being issued to clubs will also be reviewed and any deficiencies identified will also be tightened.

To this end EKF has called an urgent meeting of its board members for later this week.

Further statement will follow post the said meeting.

Thank you.

The Sheru Classic International Kabaddi Championship organised by England Kabaddi Federation (UK) in Association with Manak Solicitors and Tru-Athlete was won on Sunday 13 August 2023 at Excel Arena London by England Lions.

Bearing in mind that it was the first such event on this scale organised by EKF it was very well organised and well presented. In order to ensure smooth running of the event and to ensure there were no last minute hick ups our General Secretary, namely Surinder Singh Manak, took it upon himself to micro manage every detail, from personally checking players and officials into hotel on Saturday 12th August to ordering Pizzas for them when the local restaurant hired to provide food closed late at night. He even managed to have all Kits and Uniforms for players and officials brought by his brother Rajbir Singh Manak and nephew Hamanvir Singh Manak from India on their return flight which landed at Gatwick at 7pm on Saturday 12th August. The said uniforms and Kits wee rushed from Gatwick to the Hotel by the elder nephew Gaganvir Singh Manak to arrive at the hotel before midnight so the same could be handed out to all players and officials in the following morning at the hotel before leaving for the venue.

To be fair all Kits and Uniforms were sponsored by Surinder’s firm Manak Solicitors and as such he was greatly helped by his Manak Solicitors Team namely Mr Jasdeep S Jandu (Jas), Mr Ben Frost, Mr Arjan S Thind ad Mr Samir Moftah, all of whom had volunteered to work unpaid on Saturday and Sunday to make this event happen.

That aside we are sure Surinder’s love for the game of Kabaddi and his commitment to EKF was the main reason for going over and above the call of duty.

While Surinder and his team managed affairs at the hotel the other members of EKF ie Mr Satnam Singh (Sata), Mr Jarnail Singh (Jela), Mr Satinderpal Singh Sandhu (Goldy) and Kulbir Singh Sanghera (Laala) accompanied by their co-workers were busy laying the playing mats and marking the ground at the venue which was only 5-10 minutes walking distance from the hotel. Due to family commitments our President Mr Rashpal Singh Athwal was unable to arrive until early hours of Sunday but after only a few hours of sleep he was ready and set to start the proceedings.

In the end it was all worth it.

The red and blue playing Mats on the pitch were a perfect contrast to the dark black high ceilings of the massive halls at ExCeL which resemble more a hanger at an Aeroplane Factory than a Sports Venue. The lighting and other features of ExCeL made it a perfect venue. The fact ExCeL is situated next door to City Airport, has excellent links to public transport and provides ample parking, were factors not overlooked when the venue was chosen.

The event was well attended. It is difficult to calculate exact numbers but suffice it to say the turnout was way better than expected. The Spectators had paid £35.00 per head to come and be part of this historic Kabaddi event as it was the first such indoor event on this scale in the United Kingdom.

Based solely on the standard of kabaddi played on the day they were not disappointed. Four Kabaddi Teams, namely England Lions, India Tigers, EU Bulls and Pakistan Panthers, competed for the Sheru Classic IKC at its inauguration.

Total number of 5 matches were played and players from all teams competed with ferocity at the highest level and showed such determination to win that has never been seen before in the United Kingdom.

The overall results were as follows:-

• The England Lions finished first and won the first cash prize of £11,100.00 and 1-year free protein supplement for all team players
• The EU Bulls were runners up and as such won the second cash prize of £8,100.00 and 6 months free protein supplement for all team players
• The Indian Tigers finished third and won the third cash prize of £5,100.00
• The Pakistan Panthers finished fourth and won the fourth cash prize of £4,100.00

Alas there could be only one winner - the biggest winner on Sunday was the game of Kabaddi itself!

It was an excellent start for this long awaited and much needed competition in the United Kingdom and the EKF hopes to make it an annual event.

The EKF is already in sponsorship talks with Sheru Classic and Tru-Athlete and others to begin plans for next year.

Watch this space!

England Kabaddi Federation (UK) in Association with Manak Solicitors manaksolicitors.co.uk presents Sheru Classic International Kabaddi Championship https://www.truathlete-isff.com/kabaddi/ on Sunday 13 August at Excel Arena London. Kabaddi Teams from England India Pakistan and the EU fight it out over 6 matches for prize money of over £28000.00. Visit https://manak.co/ikc-tickets now and book your tickets to enjoy this battle of kabaddi giants in this fun packed Family Event.

Anyone wishing to get involved and sponsor a Team or a Prize is invited to click here to view the Sponsorship Package https://www.truathlete-isff.com/kabaddi/.

The 2023 EKF Kabaddi season kicked off last Sunday at Bradford in Yorkshire England with a bang. Be it that the bang was provided by the rumbling clouds, lightning and rain!

Initially it seemed impossible that any matches could take place. The fear and trepidation of having to cancel the first tournament was visible from distance on the faces of all concerned. However, by mid-day the weather cleared and to the delight of all the referees declared that the matches can begin. An announcement which was welcomed with a loud round of applause by the thousand plus people who had paid £5.00 per ticket in the hope being there to watch the start of season.

Based on the applications received the EKF will decide as to who should be issued with a

A total of eight teams took part. Two of the said teams consisted purely of UK based players and the other six teams primarily consisted of semi-professional kabaddi players from Punjab India and Pakistan who have come to UK on contracts under the Tier 5 PBS on Visas issued by the Home Office to play kabaddi for English clubs during this summer.

The tournament was held on knock out basis. Total number of 7 matched were played. The final took place between Erith Woolwich & Southall v Gravesend & Barking. Due to heavy rain the officials were forced to declare the match abandoned at half time for fear of injury to players. In the first half it was a closely contested match and at the time of the match being abandoned Erith Woolwich & Southall was in lead by half a point.

In the interest of fairness and with consent of both club managers the match was declared to be a draw and both teams were given the honour of being Joint First.

Despite the weather interfering with a couple of matches it was an excellent start to the season with mouth watering prospects for the rest of the season.

The next tournament will take place in Hayes on Sunday 25/06/2023 at Navnat Centre, Printing House Lane, Hayes, London, UB3 1AR.

It is expected that 10 teams will take part. Hayes We hope to see you all there!

After extensive discussions and negotiations the Home Office has agreed to extend the Governing Body Endorsement Criteria for 2022 – 23 until 5th May 2023. Further the Home Office has confirmed that the current General Secretaries of the EKF are empowered to issue the GBEs provided of course the players meet the agreed criteria. This basically means that the 2023 kabaddi season in UK can proceed without any further hinderance or obstruction.

Since the announcement of this achievement on 12th April the activity amongst the clubs has intensified as they appear to have instructed their scouts in India, Pakistan and other parts of the world to sign the best players as soon as possible with a view to apply for GBEs before the current deadline of 26th April 2023.

Based on the applications received the EKF will decide as to who should be issued with a tournament and announce the relevant dates.

We are pleased to announce that in association with Sheru Classic a major kabaddi cup will be held on 13th August 2023 at Excell London. Six international teams (England, India, Pakistan, Canada, USA and EU) will participate. The best players from each country will take part. The teams will receive total prize money of over £40,000.00. The Kabaddi Cup will be part of a 3 day Expo that will start on 11th August and in addition to Kabaddi it will contain various other sports and activities. For full information in this regard please visit www.sheruclassicworld.com