FIB held its Annual Congress Tuesday March 28, in connection with the World Champonship tournaments in Växjö, Sweden. The congress was led by FIB President Stein Pedersen and 17 member associations participated. There was the option for the voting member federations to participate on site or online and 13 member associations were on site while 4 participated online.
FIB is currently working with two perspectives. On the one hand, the business needs to function as well as possible under the current circumstances with the war in Ukraine and tough economic times for both the FIB and the national member associations that arrange the international tournaments. Partly, one focus is the future where it is about developing the international business and preparing for “when the new normal will come” when all countries can participate in the tournaments again.
The FIB Executive Committee had a meeting the day before the congress where various issues were prepared for the congress. The congress approved the auditor’s report and the annual report and the congress also voted on the proposal for a new member of the board of arbitration. Christer Palin from Sweden will now be part of that committee.
Chairman Stein Pedersen and General Secretary Attila Adamfi on the Congress.
The Great Britain Bandy Association represented by its President Lyn Gibb-de Swarte raised an important topic namely the issue of gender equality in our business and the conditions for transgender people to participate. Congress noted it as a topic for the continuation and hopefully produce a decision. Several other international sports organizations have taken decisions in different directions for the conditions for transgender people in sports.
An important condition for future tournaments is that the various member federations are positive about organizing the tournaments. The technical committee’s Frank Peters from the Netherlands wants to receive expressions of interest regarding the tournaments from next season by May 15.
FIB General Secretary Attila Adamfi informed also that FIB have signed an agreement with the Sportradar Integrity Services where Sportradar monitors all the betting at all matches during the international tournaments organized by FIB. The Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) is an advanced and proven bet monitoring system that has been verified by experts in sports betting and integrity. (Read more about this agreement in a later news update).
The extra congress after the summer of this year will focus on future business in a reform and reviewing process where statutes, guidelines and much else will be revised. The working group that has been running for a few months will continue to consist of the entire Executive Committee and that all member federations participate in the work that will dominate the extra congress.