Starting with the 2023 competition season, the Gold Club, standard competition for pigeon sport in Romania, will enter a new phase of development, based on new organizational criteria. The new regulation, which will be valid for the 2023-2026 seasons, aims to increase both competition and attractiveness by introducing important regulatory changes. Broadly speaking, a new category will be introduced, Gold Marathon Yearlings, and the awarding of participants will be up to the level of the clubs in each branch of the Union of Pigeon Federations in Romania (U.F.C.R.) The method of calculating the scores of the pigeons participating in the competition is also changing.

Before reviewing and detailing each of the novelties of the new regulations of the Gold Club, we specify that the entire responsibility for organizing the Gold Club competition rests with the well-known Arad pigeon fancier Daniel Marta, president of the Arad Pigeon Association and member of the UFCR Steering Committee.

The Gold Club will have two categories: Gold Long distance Yearlings and Gold Marathon Yearlings

In addition to the classic Gold Long distance Yearlings norm, which can be achieved by adding the penalty points obtained in 3 long distance races from the 5 available, with no limit of kilometers, starting with the 2023 season, the Gold Club will also contain the Gold Marathon Yearlings category. This norm, composed of the addition of penalty points from 2 marathon stages out of the four designated ones at the beginning of the season, was introduced out of the desire to expand the possibility of winning cash prizes to the most beloved category in the country, but also at the request of many Romanian pigeon fanciers. Thus, out of a total of six marathon races, four stages will be nominated for the Gold competition and can be taken into account to achieve the norm. Special rings will be distributed for the Gold Marathon Yearlings category.

The score for each race will be calculated based on the number of Gold rings sold in each branch

Another very important provision of the new regulation concerns the method of calculating the penalty score. The scores will be directly influenced by the number of Gold rings sold in each branch, meaning that at each race nominated for Gold, the ranking score will be calculated based on the number of Gold rings sold in that branch and not on the number of pigeons that participate in that race. In other words, the more rings a subsidiary buys, the lower the scores and the higher the chances of participants winning a national award. The formula for calculating the scores will be as follows: LP (place of the pigeon in the ranking) X 1,000 / (divided) by the number of Gold rings sold.

10 national awards, 3 county awards and club awards

By far, however, the most important are the prizes. In this sense, the UFCR management decided to extend them, including at club level. First of all, 10 National Gold prizes will be awarded, in the amount of 10,000 lei gross each (~2000 €), for the first 10 pigeons with the lowest score in the Gold Long distance Yearlings and Gold Marathon Yearlings categories. As before, a national award will be required in each province to ensure their equitable distribution. In addition, in each county that purchased Gold rings, three county prizes will be awarded, as well as prizes at the level of each branch club, one for each hundred rings purchased. For example, we provide some calculation simulations:
Simulation 1: 20,000 rings / category
Total amount collected: 400,000 lei / category
100,000 lei represents the ten National prizes / category
5% = 20,000 lei ring costs and promotion / category
The remaining amount, of 280,000 lei, ie 70.00% of the total amount, will go to the county branches for local awards.
A subsidiary that has 4 clubs and has purchased 500 Gold Rings will have a budget of 7,000 lei, which will be distributed as follows:
Club 1 = 120 rings – 1 prize = 1000 lei
Club 2 = 210 rings – 2 prizes = 2 x 1000 lei = 2000 lei
Club 3 = 130 rings – 1 prize = 1000 lei
Club 4 = 40 rings – 0 prize
A number of 3 prizes will be awarded per county, as follows: 7000 – 4000 = 3000/3 = 1000 lei
First place = 1000 lei
Second place = 1000 lei
Third place = 1000 lei
A subsidiary that has 5 clubs and has purchased 1000 Gold Rings will have a budget of 14,000 lei, which will be distributed as follows:
Club 1 = 120 rings – 1 prize = 1000 lei
Club 2 = 210 rings – 2 prizes = 2 x 1000 lei = 2000 lei
Club 3 = 130 rings – 1 prize = 1000 lei
Club 4 = 240 rings – 2 prizes = 2 x 1000 lei = 2000 lei
Club 5 = 300 rings – 3 prizes = 3 x 1000 lei = 3000 lei
A number of 3 prizes will be awarded per county, as follows: 14000 – 9000 = 5000/3 = 1666.66 lei
First place = 1666.66 lei
Second place = 1666.66 lei
Third place = 1666.66 lei
County prizes can increase or decrease depending on how many prizes there will be on clubs.

“The Gold Club is, no doubt, is an exponential competition for Romanian pigeon fanciers, something that has never existed in any pigeon fancier country in the world. Its growing popularity from year to year, the growing number of pigeon fanciers who buy Gold rings, the growing and more diverse awards in the provinces and counties, all these reasons and not only proved that the decision of the National Federation to organize this competition was a welcome one from all points of view. Next year, the Gold Club will run according to the same coordinates as at present, but from 2023 things will change a little, meaning that there will be a Gold club for the Marathon category, and the money that will be earned at county and club level will be directly proportional to the number of Gold Long distance or Marathon rings purchased. This regulation, approved by the UFCR management, will represent a big step forward both by attracting new categories of fanciers, those who love the Marathon stages, and by an even greater fairness of the distribution of prizes “, said Daniel Marta , member of the Board of Directors of UFCR, responsible for the organization and development of the Gold Club.