FISU EC Meeting in Session
BRUSSELS – For the first day of the meeting , members of the Executive Committee of FISU began the session with a tribute to Leonardo Coiana, Yury Parfenov and Hi-Chul Chang , three prominent members of the FISU Family who recently passed away.
The FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien during his report
FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien then presented his report insisting that FISU continues to expand its network and must therefore treat its good relations with the International Sports Federations (ISFs) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with great care. FISU will now work directly with ISFs on a contract basis, as is already the case with most ISFs that make up its sports programme. Similarly, bilateral meetings with the IOC will be held on a regular basis. In order to improve the work of the technical committees and to be more in tune with the sports regulations of the ISFs, President Gallien proposed to the EC to form a ‘sports working group’, which was agreed by the EC members. It will be composed of the Chairs of the International Technical Committees (ITCs) for the Winter and Summer Universiades and the World University Championships as well as the FISU Secretary-General.
Eric Saintrond, FISU SG/CEOThis group replaces the FISU Committee for Sports Regulations (CRS) from today onwards. President Gallien has finally insisted on the need to limit the number of World University Championships to ensure a better support to the Organising Committees and deliver quality competitions. In conclusion, President Gallien also recalled the importance of the establishment of the ‘International Day of University Sport’ with the support of UNESCO. In this frame, FISU will develop, for the first time, a student festival ‘Lausanne in Motion’ to be held in Lausanne on 20 September, 2014.
FISU Secretary-General/CEO Eric Saintrond then presented his report. He took stock of our past events and presented the members of the Executive Committee with an overview of the preparations for the upcoming FISU activities. Finally, the Secretary-General/CEO also gave a detailed presentation of the future headquarters of FISU which will be located on the campus of the University of Lausanne. The Secretary-General also informed the EC members of the evolving concept 3×3 FISU World University League. This project will be implemented in collaboration with FIBA and is now being finalized (a detailled presentation was made by Tijana Grustam, FISU Executive Assistant for Special Eevents) .
FISU Treasurer Bayasgalan Danzandorj presented the balance sheet of the FISU highlighting the fact that our federation is going through a difficult period due mainly to the global financial crisis.
Alison Odell, EDUC Chair with Paolo Bouquet, President of the Organising Committee of the Winter Universiade 2013 Conference
Alison Odell Chair of the Committee for Education Services (EDUC) presented the report of her Committee. Mrs. Odell talked about the success of the 2014 FISU FORUM held in Gwangju, where during the 2015 Summer Universia
Stefan Bergh, CDSU Chair
de the FISU Conference will be hosted as well. A Korean delegation also presented the report of preparation of this event to be held 11 to 13 July, 2015. Mrs. Odell finally gave the floor to Paolo Bouquet. The latter presented t
he report of the successful Conference of the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, which was held prior to the Games.
Stefan Bergh, Chair of the Committee for the Development of University Sport (CDSU) then presented the report of his Committee focusing on the projects presented by the continental and national associations as well as the Gwangju Legacy programme. Finally, Mr. Bergh introduced new rules for sponsorship of events by FISU.
Rosaura Mendez, Chair of the Gender Equality Committee presented the activities of her Committee and also mentioned the presence of FISU at the upcoming 6th Conference of Women and Sport to be held in Helsinki from 12 to 15 June, 2014.
Rosaura Mendez and Penninah Kabenge for the GEC
Verena Burk, Chair of the Media and Communication Committee presented the aspects of communication at last years’ Universiades in Kazan and Trentino including the progress regarding TV and broadcasting through collaboration with Eurosport. She also elaborated on the 3rd edition of the Young Reporters’ Programme for the Gwangju Universiade.
Verena Burk, chair of the Media and Communication Committee with Dejan Susovic, FISU Director for Media
Finally, the first day of this Executive Committee meeting ended with the reports of the Medical Committee, the Committee for Sports Regulations and the Intercontinental Council.
Oleg Matytsin, FISU President
The second day of the meeting of the Executive Committee will be dedicated on the progress reports of the future Winter and Summer Universiades.
Y. Dufour, Editor-in-Chief