UPBF Membership Criteria

One country, one representative

Each country is represented in UPBF by a single organisation. This is standard across international sport: football, athletics and the Olympic movement each recognise one national body per country. How paintball is organised withina country is for that country to decide — UPBF takes no view on a country's internal structure. What UPBF determines is which single body it recognises and works with internationally.

What we look for: genuine support and a unifying role

A representative body's role is broader than running events. In most countries its real value is to bring the paintball community together, carry the administrative load, and act as the voice between the community and government. We therefore recognise the body that the country's leagues, clubs and players genuinely support to do this work — not the body that simply holds a particular registration, government endorsement, or official title. We look at substance, not labels. In short, we ask: who are the country's paintball players, clubs and leagues actually behind?

That support should be reflected in the body's leadership: an executive that freely elected by, and representative of, the community it serves— experienced, capable of working together, and as unbiased as possible for the greater good of the sport. Our Statutes require exactly this independence and free election of a member's governing body (Article 7).

This is the test our Statutes set. Article 4 opens membership to a national paintball association that is “responsible for the organization and implementation of paintball-related matters in the territory of their country” — note matters, not merely competitions. That is a functional test of what a body actually does for the sport and its community, not a test of which registration tier or domestic title it holds.

Internal national disputes

Where more than one organisation exists within a country, how those bodies relate to one another — including any decision by an existing representative on succession or consolidation — is a domestic matter for that country. UPBF respects the choices of its existing members and does not intervene in internal national disputes. Our role is limited to recognising the single body that represents the country internationally.

When a country has no established federation yet

Some countries do not yet have an established representative federation. In those cases, UPBF may recognise another organisation on a temporary, provisional basis — so the country's players can take part in competition while a proper representative structure is developed. Provisional recognition is reviewable and is a bridge toward full recognition.