The following editorial from European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen features in the December 2015 edition of Inside Track.
At the European Athletics Convention in Lausanne, it was my great pleasure to listen to IOC President Thomas Bach, IAAF President Sebastian Coe and EOC President Patrick Hickey address our 51 Member Federations.
President Bach spoke – very frankly – about the importance of change. “Change or be changed” was his overriding message to the European Athletics Family.
He kindly referred to my pre-election manifesto of “Leading Change” that outlines the – sometimes difficult – decisions that we face.
Changes need to be made to our existing events. Change must come about through new, innovative events. Change must come through how we serve our federations, how we operate as an organisation, how we do business.
These changes are critical to the future of our sport. We cannot fall behind. We must address the realities of a new, modern, digitised world, which presents myriad other requests and demands on people’s time. Society has changed. So must we.
I was present at the recent “G5” meeting that brings together the big Member Federations of France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. A hot discussion topic was the “European Sports Championships,” of which the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships will be part.
Being a part of this is undoubtedly a big change – but we must look to innovative and to challenge the status quo. We cannot stand still. But we will manage this particular change on our own terms. We are the leaders of this project along with European Swimming. We are in the driving seat.
Television has been pushing for this concept, and we have listened. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will be the broadcast partner. There is a projected television audience of around 850 million and an even wider audience via multiple digital platforms. I understand that for the first time there is considerable interest from broadcasters outside of Europe as well. The EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot believes that the multi-sport event will be the centrepiece of the summer sports season in Europe.
Adopting a new concepts such as the European Sports Championships is part of our strategy in addressing the central challenge European Athletics faces over the coming decade: increasing the relevance of our sport.
We hope many of the future changes we make will build greater awareness, popularity and loyalty that will attract additional support from governments, the media, commercial partners and volunteers.
In this particular case, we are sure the European Sports Championships will bring additional values and benefits to the European Athletics Championships in Berlin and athletics on the continent.
Let us embrace this change!
To succeed in effecting change, a key issue in the sport that we must address is integrity. Athletics has long been a leader in the fight against doping. Maintaining this position, becoming more effective, and communicating about our efforts are fundamental to the credibility of our sport.
Our recent Council meeting in Frankfurt tackled this issue, specifically the extremely serious allegations relating to doping and corruption that are currently being addressed by the IAAF, the French authorities, WADA and others.
We are going through a dark and sad time for athletics. Although such problems are not unique to our sport or organisations, they are against all the values and ideals we hold.
However, we are heartened by the thought that we have a unique opportunity to take appropriate action, implement necessary reforms and start to rebuild the credibility of our sport.
We give our full backing and support to the IAAF President Sebastian Coe in his efforts to lead the sport through the difficult and complicated process. We are aware that it will take time and there will be many challenges, but we have full confidence in President Coe’s leadership. Personally, I will give Seb my full support in my role as IAAF Council member and Executive Board member.
The position of European Athletics is that athletics is a sport that continues to offer great value to participants, audiences and partners around the world.
By standing together and upholding all our values, we can and will work through the current difficulties and athletics will emerge stronger in the future.