Challenges and opportunities in a busy year: European Athletics President Hansjorg Wirz looks back on 2013.
'We approach the end of a very intensive year for European Athletics. Indeed, between all our events in 2013 and my commitments as President, I can confidently say it has been one of the busiest years of my tenure in terms of travel.
An important issue that I have addressed on my travels has been maintaining existing athletics facilities within our sport. I have been involved in discussions in Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Lithuania, Moldova and Netherlands this year regards this issue. Some situations have been resolved for the benefit of athletics, while some are ongoing.
I was among those who wrote letters to the Council of Hengelo urging them not to sell the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadion to a local football club. The sale, proposed in order to save the municipality money, would have seen the athletics track in the stadium ripped up and the end of the FBK Games – one of the most famous meetings in the world.
It would have been a great loss to the Dutch athletics community, especially considering the European Athletics Championships will take place in Amsterdam in 2016.
I am glad to say that the Council voted unanimously against selling the stadium and so the track is retained and the FBK Games will continue.
I also recently returned from a visit to Lithuania to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss the future of athletics facilities in the country.The main topic was Lithuania’s National Stadium. I shared my experiences of the construction of multi-sports facilities in Switzerland and Europe. During our talks I underlined European Athletics’ position on the development of multiple-use stadiums. We believe these are needed not only for professional athletes but to promote interest in all sports and cultural events. The benefits for public employment and health with such facilities are evident.
During my various discussions, I have highlighted the success of multi-purpose stadiums such as Letzigrund in Zurich, which was used during the 2008 European Championships in football, is home to annual Weltklasse IAAF Diamond League meeting, and next year will host the European Athletics Championships.
It is clear that football is such an important influence and consideration for countries when they are planning such sporting facilities, and we must work towards an increased dialogue with our friends in football to see how we can co-exist in this area.
Football also has a profound influence in our forward planning for events. For the European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014, we long ago set the dates for 12-17 August during which UEFA has now scheduled football matches.
Again, we must be more active in discussions with other sports so that we can avoid such clashes in the future.
Our work behind the scenes in relation to the aforementioned topics is set against a backdrop of a strong political influence that continues to see financial cuts to our sport in certain countries. We must take action in these areas, and we can only find a stabilised position if we have wider recognition of our sport.
We have had a meeting with the new leader of the European Commission’s Sport Unit to discuss what the EU can do for European Athletics. We presented to them what our position and thinking is in the future. Indeed, we must position ourselves credibly when working with the EU.
Sustained recognition media-wise is also important. There are tremendous changes in public and private television at the moment. We must analyse the whole situation of where television is in the future and in what direction it will move. Our main events retain a primetime position on television but we see a worrying trend of other sports coverage moving to specialised sports channels.
Wider recognition of European Athletics needs to come at all levels of our sport. Our Constitution states that we must work to develop, promote and foster the sport in all forms in Europe, including track & field, road running, race walking, cross country running and mountain running.
To this end, we are working hard in the area of road running, as the natural and logical authority in this area, to be in a situation whereby runners consider that they are in our sport and are recognised as being part of athletics.
We are moving in the right direction in this area and in the area of high performance as we come to the end of this busy and productive year. I would like to thank our long-standing partners SPAR, OMEGA, LE GRUYˆRE AOP and EUROVISION for their support as we work to reach the high quality, and requirements expected of us as we continue in our mission.'
This editorial appeared in the December 2013 edition of the European Athletics newsletter Inside Track.