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Most of Bermuda's martial artists could find themselves on the wrong side of the law come May 1.

The Bermuda Martial Arts Federation is one of five sporting groups who are not compliant with the World Anti Doping Association's drug testing regulations.

The sport has already been blacklisted by Government and is not allowed to receive any funds or use any government facilities, but an opt out clause will allow the BMAF to kick out any dojos or clubs that are not compliant.

As of 6pm yesterday, only six of the 19 clubs under the umbrella of BMAF had met the international standard: Zenji Ryu Bermuda Karate Do, Yong-Duk TKD, Jiketsu Martial Productions, Budokan Karate Club, Ryu Kyu Kobujutsu, Club and Dojo of the Free Spirit.

The other 13 clubs will see themselves stripped of being able to represent Bermuda in international competitions and prevent funding to any promising young athletes to reaching their full potential.

Reuben Bean, the business secretary for BMAF, said his governing body has tried to stress to the various clubs underneath it that these rules and regulations are coming from WADA, government and the Bermuda Council for Drug-Free Sport.

Bean said: "Over the past two years I've put in hours and hours of my personal time to assist these members. Unfortunately they haven't looked at the big picture. It's not the Bermuda Martial Arts Federation trying to implement stringent policies to hurt them - this is coming from WADA. The Bermuda government has to follow that and it filters down to us."

Bean added: "The Bermuda Martial Arts Federation has been in meetings with Government and have done all that we can to protect and bring all the non-compliant members to a level of compliance. Very shortly we'll have a final meeting to reiterate the importance of them to do the necessary testing and completing the necessary applications to bring them up to the par with the regulations handed down from WADA and the Bermuda government."

Kristina Ingham, secretary of Bermuda Karate Organization and manager of the Bermuda Karate Institute said she's very irritated at BMAF saying it's the leaders that are dragging down the whole martial arts community.

"I find it very irritating that BMAF, which has just about destroyed any sort of co-operative martial arts ventures in Bermuda, is saying someone is not compliant when they are not compliant either. It's just ridiculous."

She said: "My understanding is that most of the groups have withdrawn their support of the Bermuda Martial Arts Federation so they have not made any attempt to contact or comply with any of these regulations that are being put in place."

She said it was incorrect that six clubs had met the WADA standard.

"They're not compliant in any case because it's the responsibility of the Martial Arts Federation to ensure that information is disseminated to all the respective groups. They have not done that. They have not communicated that to anybody. Within the last several months they sent out a ridiculous survey that had nothing to do with drugs or sport. Most of the schools did not fill it out.

"No one is in compliance within the martial arts community, if they say they are, they're full of it."

She said Oscar Lightbourne is representing the group of martial arts clubs that are not in agreement with BMAF. Lightbourne is also vice-president of the Bermuda Amateur Boxing Association.

"Our position is that we can't be compliant if the governing body is not doing anything to ensure compliance."

She said government cannot stop people from going overseas and competing.

"How can they possible do that? They cannot stop people from going overseas and doing whatever they want to do. They can withdraw funding, but if people want to go abroad to compete and they get into a certain competition, there's no way government can prevent them from doing that. They can say you're not an official representative of Bermuda."

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