Karate: 2027 World Championships in Milan-Bergamo one year out

The Senior Individual Karate World Championships will be held from November 11 to 14, 2027 in Milan-Bergamo, Italy. The World Karate Federation (WKF) marked the one-year countdown this week with a report on a site inspection. The event will take place at Bergamo's ChorusLife Arena, a multipurpose venue that seats 6,000.

Inspection gets a thumbs-up

The WKF delegation was led by Organising Commission chair Marton Falusi and events manager Ivan Delfino. They were welcomed by Davide Benetello, head of the karate sector at FIJLKAM, the Italian federation covering judo, wrestling, karate and martial arts, and a member of the WKF Executive Committee. The local organising committee praised the arena and the progress made so far. WKF President Antonio Espinós said the karate family can be proud of the quality of its events.

The Italian event is billed as the final phase. According to the WKF's 2027 calendar released over the summer, which is still marked as provisional, a qualification tournament is set for October 8 to 10, 2027 in Rabat, Morocco, a month before Bergamo. The detailed 2027 qualification system has not yet been published.

A busy 2027

The same provisional calendar puts the EKF Senior European Championships in Marseille, France, from March 24 to 28, 2027. The Premier League is due to visit Istanbul in late January, Rome in March, Astana in May and Rabat in June, while the European Games in Istanbul are scheduled for June 16 to 27, with karate dates still to be confirmed.

Before all that, the 2026 season still has a big stop to come. The team Karate World Cup starts on November 20 in Hangzhou, China, and Espinós also mentioned that event in the Italian announcement.

On the Italian side, FIJLKAM events manager Marco Scaramuzza also took part in the visit. The Italian federation and the local organising committee are running preparations under the WKF, which owns the event.