The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) is supporting the Commission Française de Mixed Martial Arts (CFMMA) in a legal challenge to France’s recent decree banning the sport of MMA.
The claim was lodged on 22 December 2016 before the Council of State, the highest court in France.
On 3 October, the French State published a decree, officially taken on security grounds. Although previously never technically illegal in France, this decree explicitly forbade MMA competition by declaring some of its core techniques illegal – namely, elbow strikes, ground strikes and the combat enclosure.
The decree was issued at the same time as a detailed parliamentary report into MMA in France reached its culmination.