Speaking to insidethegames at the Asian Ju-Jitsu Championships in Bahrain, Theodoropoulos viewed a long-term partnership with AJP as beneficial to athletes and the respective parties, speaking positively of the prize money on offer and the opportunities it gave players to compete.

However, the President said for relations to get past its primitive stage, AJP would need to abide by necessary measures to maintain clean sport.

"For JJIF, the AJP can be the professional partner, but we need a lot of things to be standardised and under control before we get a full connection with them," said Theodoropoulos.

"One point that is not up for discussion is this: if we support any kind of competition we must have doping control.

"The biggest part of our budget is to control doping.

"We need some time to approve that and put it into AJP competition because AJP is based on individual competition - it's not very easy to control."

Previously, JJIF director general Joachim Thumfart said sport today required a "professional partner".

"We collaborate with the AJP, but as of now you do not see JJIF advert boards in the sports halls, so we are not there yet," he said to insidethegames.

"I think in today's sport world you should be with a professional partner.

"I think this is the right thing for the athletes, for coaches to be professionals and to develop.

"On the other hand it is a positive influence to install the Olympic values into the professional sport.

"AJP can help the get the community together."

AJP operations manager Rodrigo Valerio said its organisation looked to "strengthen the sport's power".

He added that $3 million (£2.28 million/€2.71 million) in cash prizes were to be handed out during the 2021-2022 AJP season.