A staggering 96 per cent of club representatives voted in favour of the proposed Governance changes, which were outlined in a report produced by governance expert Jonathan Hall, at the meeting held at the University of Wolverhampton.

The changes to the statutes included a provision which would mean the chair of the Board will be chosen through a "criteria-based appointment process" rather than an election.

They will also be limited to a maximum of two four-year terms to "balance stability and the opportunity for fresh leadership".

Directors will still be elected but a new nomination process, conducted by the newly-established Nominations Committee, will open up the position to a wider range of people.

The BJA also plans to reduce the number of elected directors from four to three while increasing the amount of independent directors from three to four.

The recommendations were produced in Hall's report following an extensive consultation process with the BJA membership last year.

Hall said the BJA needed to improve their engagement with their membership and urged them to clarify the roles and responsibilities of key staff within the governing body and Board of Directors.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation in today’s EGM process which has been successful, by a considerable margin, in approving the required amendments to the BJA Memorandum and Articles of Association which will enable the association to both modernise and improve our governance arrangements, and also ensure compliance with the provisions of the UK Sport/Sport England Code for Sports Governance," said BJA chairman Ronnie Saez.

"It is my firm belief that, as well as enabling British Judo to meet the requirements of the above code, these governance improvements will lead to a more open, transparent and accountable BJA which both operates with a greater degree of effectiveness and is more engaged with our membership.

"The British Judo board, management and staff look forward to leading the association on this change journey.”

Hall also claimed the BJA's progress in enhancing their governance had been "clouded" by the controversy concerning the 2015 European Championships, which were stripped from the Scottish city of Glasgow and instead held in Baku as part of the inaugural European Games.

A report by law firm Hamlins found former BJA chairman Kerrith Brown, who is now President of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, “almost entirely” responsible.

This decision, made by the European Judo Union (EJU), came as a result of a sponsorship agreement the BJA under Brown had entered into with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which the EJU claimed did not meet their "values".

The Hamlins report found Brown, who was stripped of his bronze medal at the Seoul 1988 Olympics after testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs, had orchestrated a sponsorship agreement between the governing body and the Combat Sports Federation (CSF), which was brokering a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championships, of which he was a director.

This represented a clear conflict of interest, the report said.

Brown was also accused of deliberately misleading the BJA Board, while chief executive Andrew Scoular was also implicated.

The next stage of implementing the changes will be done at a BJA Council meeting at the University of Wolverhampton on April 1.