Skalli was speaking at the CAS Congress in Hammamet, where representatives of 12 national federations - Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger and hosts Tunisia - were in attendance.

He is of the opinion that an efficient hands-on experience exchange between national federations could be achieved through the so-called Mediterranean Sambo Union that could be formed between Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

One other important topic on the agenda was the approval of host countries for the African Championships of 2019 and 2020.

These editions were assigned to Morocco and the Republic of the Congo respectively.

In his welcome address, Skalli summed up the recent work of the CAS and noted that the national federations have made a significant step forward in the promotion of sambo.

He cited the achievements of African sambists at international competitions as evidence of this, including bronze medal-winning performances from Claude Kouamen and Chantal Fokou at the 2017 World Championships in Sochi in Russia.

Kouamen managed the feat in the men’s over 100 kilograms category, while Fokou did so in the women’s over 80kg division.

Following Skalli, CAS secretary general François Mbassi and the technical director of the Royal Moroccan Federation of Sambo and Tai-Jitsu, Mohammed Aberouz, took to the floor.

The Congress was concluded by FIAS executive director Sergey Tabakov.

He spoke about the possible introduction of additional articles to the uniforms of female athletes from African Muslim countries.

These would cover the open areas of their bodies.

Tabakov also spoke about the introduction of a ranking system for sambists with special qualification strips on athletes' belts indicating their titles.

Both proposals were supported by the leaders of the national federations.