FISU Acting President Leonz Eder and FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric SaintrondThe 2021 FISU General Assembly is underway. This is the 37th edition, and its first online, with 174 member National University Sports Federations (NUSF) are eligible to participate. It will take place over three days from October 29th to 31st.
Report of the Acting President
FISU Acting President Leonz Eder got the proceedings underway bringing delegates back to the warm Naples summer nights in 2019 and the fact no one then could have predicted what the next two years would bring. Shortly after Naples, FISU began tracking trends of COVID-19 and thus was able to adapt and react to its spread, which included the postponement of the 2021 Lucerne Winter Universiade and the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games. Eder complimented FISU CEO and Secretary General Eric Saintrond, and the whole staff for the professionalism shown in adapting to the online work environment due to COVID-19.
This online work and new ways of collaboration have enabled FISU to continue its important global work, Eder said, while also providing consideration for how FISU can help combat the climate crisis. He indicated that everyone has a part to play in combating climate change and remote work could be one of those ways.
The important work of FISU’s Healthy Campus programme, currently at 82 universities in 31 countries, and its importance in supporting student health was discussed by the Acting President. He also talked about the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy that successfully moved online and brought 200 participants together with student ambassadors to discuss leadership, volunteer management, and best practices.
Looking to the future, the President Eder expressed excitement over the return of international university sport first in December in Lucerne-Central Switzerland at the 2021 Winter Universiade and then next summer in Chengdu. He also noted the extraordinary efforts being taken by organizing committees of those FISU World University Games, as well as upcoming FISU World Championships, and FISU University World Cups, to plan and deliver events in such unprecedented circumstances.
Secretary General Report
Echoing President Eder’s comments, FISU Secretary-General and CEO Eric Saintrond looked back to the General Assembly in November of 2019 in Torino and the positive news it delivered. This included the new executive committee, the fresh FISU visual identity, and the celebration of FISU’s 70th anniversary. Shortly after however, as he noted, FISU was into arguably the most challenging time in its history.
The challenges started when FISU President Oleg Matytsin, who had been elected Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, could no longer sit on any international federation due to sanctions imposed on Russia by WADA. With him temporarily stepping aside, now Acting President Eder stepped into the role, and will remain until December of 2022. From there, Saintrond spoke of the challenge of FISU’s office closure in March of 2020 and the movement of work to online.
Not only was the FISU staff and work environment impacted, but of course sport was as well, Saintrond said. Other than the 2020 Speed Skating World Championship, which did lose its final day, all World University Championships and University World Cups in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled. He did express excitement at the fact 14 WUC and 7 UWC are scheduled and planned for 2022, which will play part of a busy upcoming global sport calendar.
Additionally on the sport side, he continued to outline the challenges which impacted the 2021 Winter and Summer FISU World University Games. He indicated that after much discussion it was decided to keep the Lucerne winter games in 2021, going from January to December, and move the Chengdu summer games to late June of 2022. This then led to plans for participation requirements. He spoke of the Lucerne requirements which are set and in place, including compulsory vaccination, while the plans for Chengdu continue to be built out but will include a bubble format for accredited attendees.
While in-person sport was severely impacted, Saintrond proudly highlighted the successes of FISU’s educational events. This included the 2020 FISU World Forum which welcomed 1,000 online participants from 105 countries, and the International Day of University Sport, in both 2020 and 2021, that saw 500 national level events organised. He noted that the success of the online events may spur more to be done in the hybrid or virtual mode in the future.
Looking further ahead, the Secretary General excitedly spoke of FISU’s success in attributing the 2025 World University Games to Rhine-Ruhr (GER) for summer and Torino (ITA) for winter despite the challenges of doing so in the pandemic. He also spoke of the integration of parasport to FISU’s existing competition programme and of eSport, which FISU plans to research and understand how to incorporate to its programme while not bringing students more in front of screens.
In a touching moment, an emotional Saintrond concluded his report by paying tribute to four members of the FISU family that have passed away since the previous General Assembly. Former FISU Treasurer Roberto Outeiriño (ESP), Auditor Adrian Gagea (ROM), Vice-President Fritz Holzer (SUI), and Vice-President Constantin Anastassov (BUL) were all honoured by delegates with a moment of silence.
FISU Membership Adjustments
As part of the 2019 FISU General Assembly in Torino (ITA) it was decided that FISU members that have not paid membership dues for four or more years would be suspended and would have until the end of 2020 to clear debts. By the deadline, Azerbaijan and Iraq paid their membership fees to meet the FISU requirements.
Despite contact with respective Continental University Sports Federations (CUSF) and the organisations themselves, American Samoa, Anguilla, Aruba, Bolivia, Chad, Cook Islands, Guam, Iceland, Lesotho, Rwanda, Sudan, Togo could not meet requirements in time and are now inactive. It was noted this is not simply a money issue but it is now possible for another organisation in each of those countries to take the mantle and apply to FISU to be the NUSF.
Additionally, Kuwait, Puerto Rico, and Yemen have been suspended by FISU for failure to meet membership requirements over the last four years and will have until the next General Assembly in 2023 to amend those issues and be reinstated as full members.
An example of a new organisation stepping in to lead university sport in its country was the fact FISU was pleased to re-affiliate Cook Islands as an active member. Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC) has met the requirements to re-affiliate and will now serve as the NUSF for the country.
Day two of the 37th General Assembly will get underway at 12:00pm CET on Saturday 30 October with discussions on the global strategy, FISU awards, as well as updates on the Lucerne Winter Universiade and Chengdu World University Games on the agenda.