New Sportaccord Office Seeks to Boost Services to Federations

(ATR) The former IOC official heading the new Sportaccord office in Lausanne, Switzerland tells Around the Rings the organization is off to a good start.

“It’s really necessary to be here in Maison du Sport. Many of our members are around and it’s good to be right in the middle of everything,” said Nolvenn Dufay de Lavallaz, senior development manager of Sportaccord, new name for the General Association of International Sports Federations.

GAISF was rebranded Sportaccord at the March meeting of the international sports convention of the same name in Denver. The umbrella organization of the world’s sports governing bodies is now sharing space with the World Chess Federation in Maison du Sport where it has about 150 squ meters.

Dufay de Lavallaz is in the process of revamping the management of Sportaccord to create added value for its 104 member federations. “My mission from the start was to develop the activities of Sportaccord, specifically to develop services and programs of support for our members,” she said.

Four staff are now working with Dufay de Lavallaz. They include: an anti-doping manager, funded partly by the IOC and WADA, to aid compliance with the WADA code among member organizations; a manager for the Martial Arts and Combat Sport Games, scheduled to be held in Beijing, Aug. 28 to Sept. 4 in 2010; and two assistants. Dufay de Lavallaz is hoping to recruit an intern to handle some communications and new media work.

Anti-doping work with federations will include a focus on Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) and out-of-competition testing. “There will be huge economies of scale [for federations]. We are not making any profit, it’s just to service the federations,” she said.

A multisports video platform is also in the works. Sportaccord is approaching all its members to find out what kind of content it can use to improve the visibility and profile of federations but especially the smaller ones where financial resources are tight. Dufay de Lavallaz said some of the bigger federations are interested in providing archive materials that don’t detract from their own video platforms.

The aim is to have the video initiative up and running on the Sportaccord website by the time of the next meeting of the international sports convention in Dubai, April 26-30.

The former GAISF website will have a new visual identity and logo by mid-July to reflect the organization’s rebranding.

Another challenge for Dufay de Lavallaz is assisting some of the more commercial IFs such as FIFA in confronting shared issues of concern in the rapidly changing sports business. A working group with the participation of federation representatives will be set up to help tackle issues such as rival leagues, betting and gambling.

“We are trying to get them together to share their experiences and outcomes of discussions with smaller IFs that have not faced these kinds of issues but may face them in the future,” she said.

In the coming months, the Sportaccord team in Lausanne will also work with federations to discuss plans for micro-games in the mould of the Martial Arts and Combat Sport Games, which is a collaboration by 13 federations. This is part of the vision of Sportaccord president Hein Verbruggen.

“We think it’s a way to unite our members and the resources from sports will go back to sport,” she said, adding that there were no micro-games in the pipeline just yet.

“It’s definitely something we want to develop but we are just going step by step.”

Dufay de Lavallaz moved from the IOC’s sports department to take up her new position in February following her appointment by Verbruggen. Christine Dominguez, former director general of GAISF, departed the organization earlier this month in the wake of the decision at the March general assembly to move its headquarters from Monaco to Lausanne.

While sharing the Sportaccord name, the international sports convention remains a separate entity that will continue to be managed by Anna Hellman. Launched in 2003, it is organized and owned by the former GAISF, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Federations (AIOWF).

With reporting from Mark Bisson.For general comments or questions, click here