The Black Eagle Taekwon-Do Association, from Tampere, Finland, was nominated as the fairest sports club in Finland by TUL (The Finnish Workers´ sport federation). This was the first time the federation had created such an award, that was open to all its 1010 member clubs. Acknowledgments of this type are unique in Finland, as no other national umbrella federation has this type of award.

Black Eagle Taekwon-Do was nominated because of the clubs widescale work for equality and fairness. Black Eagle Taekwon-Do was the ONLY club that fullfilled all six different point of TUL´s equality program. Points were: gender, economical status, age, special groups, multicultural and sexual orientatiot equality. Black Eagle Taekwon-Do planned and commitment work against racism were keys to win this award. Black Eagle Taekwon-Do’s members when joining have to sign a chart that is based on Taekwon-Do owth and tenets. This chart includes that members must work against racism and must show tolerance towards all types of culture, gender as well as sexual orientation. Black Eagle Taekwon-Do has training fees and has an open collaboration with the socialwork for support for low income families.

Kari Uotila, member of the Finnish Parliament and chair person of TUL`s equality division, praised Black Eagle for its multicultural work and its posibility give lessons in eight languages (English, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French, Swedish and of course Finnish). “This is the best way to get more imigrants involved in the life of the club”. Also club’s head intruction Thierry Meyour’s passionate work was able to get the club forward and build bridges between cultures possible. Black Eagle Taekwon-Do does not see equality as goal, it is part of its genes.

Minna Minkkinen (Black Eagle TKD member and Tampere City Council member).