ASOIF Council launches 4th IF governance review and issues statement on FIFA’s biennial World Cup plans
During its last meeting of the year, held on 19 November 2021 in a hybrid format from Lausanne (Switzerland), the Council of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) launched the fourth review of International Federation (IF) governance.
ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti, who chaired the meeting, said on this occasion: “The governance of sport organisations continues to attract scrutiny and remains a top priority for ASOIF to ensure the integrity and autonomy of IFs. This is a continuous process, and we must not stop to progress. Sport needs to be credible on and off the field of play.”
This week, the self-assessment questionnaire will be distributed to all ASOIF member federations for completion by the end of January 2022. Following independent evaluation, the final report will be presented at the next ASOIF General Assembly in May 2022. The questionnaire includes new indicators related to the governance of IF member associations; policies to foster greater diversity; and the implementation of a risk management programme. During its discussions on IF governance, the Council also considered the situation of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and agreed to continue its close collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in this regard.
The Council also issued a statement on the impact of FIFA’s biennial World Cup plans on the international sports calendar which has raised concerns among ASOIF’s other member federations.
The Council reviewed the recently published “IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” and agreed to request further clarification to better understand its impact on the IFs.
The Council members were also updated on the outcomes of the IF Transition Seminar, held jointly with the IOC on 9 and 10 November. The hybrid meeting focused on three distinct elements: key learnings from Tokyo 2020; Games-wide topics and preparations for Paris 2024. In addition, the Council reviewed the IOC’s provisional proposal for the Initial Sports Programme of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, ahead of the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission meeting next month.
Meanwhile, ASOIF member federations have received the first instalment of the revenue redistribution from Tokyo 2020, based on the model used for Rio 2016. Discussions with the IOC on the remaining instalments are ongoing and will be finalised after the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
The Council members welcomed the recent election of Ivo Ferriani as President of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), following the association’s stakeholder rotational principle. The Council also discussed the future plan of the optimisation for the IF representation within the Sport Movement.
In addition, the Council was informed that the important topic of sustainability was added as a third focus area to the portfolio of ASOIF’s Sustainability, Development and Education Group (ASDEG) in order to analyse and support the member federations’ efforts in this field. The ASOIF Council endorsed a policy to hold all future meetings in a hybrid format to reduce international travel.
Finally, the ASOIF Council re-elected World Archery President Prof Dr Uğur Erdener as ASOIF Vice-President and re-nominated Nenad Lalović, United World Wrestling (UWW) President, as ASOIF representative on the IOC Executive Board.
The next ASOIF Council meeting will be held in March 2022.