Madness has a name: FIE
At the FIE congress in Manama on Saturday, a Mexican fencing federation (FME) is to be expelled and replaced by another so-called Mexican federation (ADNEM). Everything has been prepared well in advance. This is no small matter – the trail leads to Uzbekistan in the Russian hemisphere.
When should a national federation (NF) be a regular member of an international Olympic federation (IF)? When do these NFs meet the requirements defined not only in the IF's rules and regulations, but also in the IOC's Olympic Charter? These are core Olympic issues that are repeatedly addressed in this newsletter. This is because the 37 Olympic IF currently fully recognised by the IOC (30 in summer, 7 in winter) and the seven additional federations in the programme for the 2026 Winter Games and the 2028 Olympics include quite a few national federations that can be described as fake federations for a variety of reasons.
In total, there are likely to be several hundred, most likely more than 1,000 Olympic national federations that exist, more or less, only on paper.
The problem affects the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Winter Olympic Federations (WOF) equally. And no one is doing anything about it.
Let's not fool ourselves. Let's continue to call them fake federations or scam federations.
In quite a few nations, individuals act as so-called presidents and contact persons in several NFs at once – sometimes for a little pocket money from international sources, of course. All this has one purpose: to secure votes at IF congresses, and similarly in regional and continental federations of the respective sport.
One country, one vote, you know. The abuse is enormous.
I recently described this to you using the example of a Greek impostor who has left a disastrous trail not only in World Triathlon, but also in several other sports. This impostor – president of a fake national federation that is recognised neither by the NOC nor by his country's Ministry of Sport, and also president of an international regional federation – regularly secures votes for the fake president of World Triathlon, Antonio Arimany. With lies, distortions, lobbying and dirty propaganda, in this case also via a dubious media outlet with unknown sources of funding called Sportsin, the fake president and impostor supports his boss. That's what it's all about.
Officially, of course, everyone talks about sport and the athletes they supposedly support. All that jazz.
