The AIMS Conference in Lausanne was honoured to have SportAccord Convention President, and ASOIF President Mr Francesco Ricci Bitti to open with a special welcome note. Mr Bitti thanked AIMS President, Stephan Fox for his leadership of AIMS, agreeing on the point that the focus at the moment does not lie on whether a sport is Olympic and non-Olympic, rather the relevance of sport at the professional and grassroots levels and the responsibility IF executives have in fulfilling their roles in front of the youth of the world.
He stresses that from the IF level, the roles are moving from the traditional roles of organising and ruling the sport to being more sophisticated, commercially effective, saving the integrity and better governance. Mr Bitti shed some light on the events of past year in Sochi, the work that is being done on improving the structure of SportAccord and that coordination with 2 bodies is always tough. He assured that though many things could change through the course of time, the mission of SportAccord remains strong and limited, to host events and games and provided services to the IFs.
Mr Bitti thanks the AIMS international federations delegates and Mr Fox for all the work being done in the spirit of sport . AIMS presented Mr Bitti with an honorary plaque of appreciation for his contribution to the development of world sport.
AIMS continues its cooperation with the SportAccord Convention, assuring solid representation at each convention each year.
