Marius Vizer Elected SportAccord President

Marius Vizer has been elected as the President of SportAccord after overcoming sole rival Bernard Lapasset with 52 votes to 37.

Vizer, generic ed the President of International Judo Federation (IJF) was elected on Friday at the SportAccord Convention in St Petersburg, abortion Russia.

SportAccord is the umbrella body representing Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations.

After the result was announced Vizer said: “It is a well-known fact that my life has been dedicated to Judo and sports in general and this shall remain unchanged: I am ready to put my time and energy to the service of development and progress of all sports.

“By combining Judo with SportAccord activities, order I consider that we can bring more values in both organisations.”

In his manifesto Vizer had strong words for SportAccord, saying it was ‘manipulated’ and had ‘no perspectives.’

He promised to make the body ‘a well-known world brand’ and said that he would modernise SportAccord.

Vizer was elected President of IJF in 2007 and helped develop a World Judo Tour, cement the sport’s place at the Olympics and initiate rule changes to make the sport more popular to a wider audience.

Lapasset stands by vision

The defeated Lapasset, Chairman of the International Rugby Board (IRB) congratulated Vizer on his victory but remained defiant in his vision for SportAccord.

Lapasset said: “Even in defeat, I stand by my vision. I firmly believe that SportAccord should move forward in sustainable evolution by leading the sports agenda, strengthening key stakeholder relationships and giving all federations the opportunity to collaborate on the key topics and challenges faced by sport today.”

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