ASOIF Seeks to Initiate Federation Governance Reforms -- Federations Focus

(ATR) The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations is asking its members to self-evaluate their governance principles.

ASOIF provided each of the 28 Summer IFs with a 17-page questionnaire on Nov. 18 that seeks to determine how well each of the federations is complying with the principles of the Olympic Charter, Olympic Agenda 2020 and the World Anti-Doping Agency code among other good governance ideals.

ASOIF director Andrew Ryan tells Around the Rings the results of the survey will build on the significant work many IFs have already conducted on their governance models.

"The goal is to establish the current situation of the 28 IFs against the five key principles and 50 indicators concerning the culture of governance in each," Ryan tells ATR.

"Once we have established the benchmarks the IFs will be able to identify and then address the weak areas. We will then carry out a further evaluation to see if there have been improvements or not and make public the results."

Ryan says the initial results will be made public at the ASOIF General Assembly on April 4 and will provide a benchmark for good governance across the Olympic Movement.

The results of the survey will also be independently reviewed to assess the justifications each IF gives for their answers to ensure they do not sugarcoat their governance issues.

ASOIF will analyze the results and coordinate with IFs it believes need external support or guidance.

Rugby Sevens Extending its Global Reach

Rugby’s return to the Olympic program at the Rio 2016 Games is helping the sport reach further across the globe, according to World Rugby executives.

"Rugby's return to the Olympics has been a game changer, with more than 16 million new fans following our sport after the exciting and entertaining events in Rio last August," said World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper.

The HSBC Rugby Sevens tournament heads to Dubai, United Arab Emirates from Dec. 1-3. The tournament will be aired in 100 countries across the globe. The tournament features Olympic men’s and women’s champions Fiji and Australia, teams that also won the HSBC Rugby Sevens tournament last season.

"Next week's tournament in Dubai marks the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle and building on last season, which was the most widely viewed and engaged series ever, we expect more fans from around the world to view and interact with the series," said Gosper.

The competition will be featured on channels such as CNN International and the Olympic Channel throughout the season.

Fencing President Ready for Third Term

Alisher Usmanov of Uzbekistan will be reelected as president of the International Fencing Federation during the federation’s annual congress in Moscow on Nov. 27.

Usmanov is standing unopposed yet again for the federation’s top job. He took over the federation in 2008 and is now set to lead through the Tokyo 2020 Olympics during his third term.

The 95th FIE Congress at the Ritz-Carlton in Russia will also feature elections for the executive committee and six of the FIE Commissions, including: legal, medical, promotion, refereeing, rules and safety and equipment.

FIFA Hosts First Executive Summit

As part of the 2016 FIFA reforms, the first FIFA Executive Football Summit is being held in Paris from Nov. 22-23.

"It is important that in future the decisions at FIFA are not dictated from the top but really come from those who have to engage with and organize football in their countries every day, and that is why it is important that we use their feedback and input to develop our programs," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in statement.

Representatives of 20 member associations along with general secretaries convened over the two days to exchange knowledge, debate, and discuss future programs.

One program that was a main topic of discussion was the newly improved Forward development program. Forward focuses on three principles - more investment, more impact, and more oversight - each working to improve they way the sport is developed.

"Today, we can see that the Forward Program will allow improvements to be made in the governance and management of national associations. Through Forward we can review the whole administrative structure of an association" states President of the Democratic Republic of Congo FA and FIFA Council member Constant Omari.

Ten more FIFA Executive Summits will be held around the world this and next year. The next two summits will be hosted in Singapore from Dec. 6-8. To start the New Year two summits will be held in Miami, USA on Jan. 17-18.

Written by Kevin Nutley and Courtney Colquitt

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