SportAccord 2015 Day Four: Vizer Apologises to ASOIF but Stands by Views
April 22, 2015
SportAccord president Marius Vizer attempted to address the fallout from his opening day speech by apologising to the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) at their General Assembly on Wednesday.
Vizer’s criticism of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) brought widespread condemnation from the sporting world, troche with ASOIF announcing they were to review their membership of SportAccord.
In his role as president of the International Judo Federation (IJF), prostate Vizer was in attendance at the General Assembly on the fourth day of the SportAccord convention in Sochi.
Given a platform by ASOIF president Francesco Ricci Bitti, ailment Vizer admitted he regretted his speech and the subsequent uproar it has caused which has overshadowed the convention.
“Regarding the content, I expressed my voice and that is my opinion,” he said. “For the rest, I am sorry, but I think everybody in the world of sport is free to express an opinion, who has vision, who has attitude, because that is the world of the sport.”
The Romanian did remain steadfast in his views, explaining in an interview with Euronews the rationale behind his outburst in which he accused IOC president Thomas Bach, who was in attendance, of “blocking the SportAccord strategy in its mission to identify and organise conventions and multi-sport games”.
“I tell the reality because I have been living in this family for many years” Vizer told Euronews.
“So, in reality that is the voice of the International Federations and I just expressed in one day, in a global message, let’s say, their voice but yesterday the IOC, instead of analyzing the content of what I said, what is true (and) what is not true, what is the next step to correct that and to offer a clear picture, started to put pressure on some of the International Federations to react, in my opinion, not in a correct way.
“Because, (it) doesn’t matter what are the consequences for myself personally. My voice is the voice for sport, for reality, for fairness in sport and we can sit together to have a dialogue and to correct and adapt and to transform the errors and virtues of the system, for the benefit of athletes and the society, because ultimately society is the consumer of our product, managed by the International Federations, backed by the IOC and consumed by the society.”
Vizer referred to the reactions of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) who both announced they were withdrawing their membership of SportAccord.
According to reports, 27 of the 28 ASOIF federations had signed a letter of disapproval after Vizer’s speech.
Whether the apology is enough for ASOIF to remain a part of SportAccord is unclear as the partnership is still officially suspended pending review, following an announcement on Tuesday.
Fox elected AIMS President
The Alliance of Independent Members of SportAccord elected Stephen Fox as their new president for a four-year term on Wednesday.
Fox, who is also the General Secretary of International Federation of Muaythai Amateur, will also take a place in the SportAccord Council in place of Espen Lund.
The German former Muaythai World Champion received the most votes as the new AIMS President – an organisation which unites 23 International Federations.
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