President Eliasch is polarizing
“Ruin this sport”: FIS boss makes Germans angry
March 17, 2024, 10:37 a.m
The Ski World Cup is important to the DSV sports director. FIS President Johan Eliasch also ex officio. And yet he has completely different ideas than Wolfgang Maier. The boss’s plans make him very angry.
DSV sports director Wolfgang Maier sharply criticized FIS President Johan Eliasch and his future plans. “By taking the position of FIS President, he is ruining this sport of skiing. I stand by this statement on all issues,” said the 63-year-old in the BR24Sport interview during the last World Cup of the season in Saalbach-Hinterglemm: “Of course he won’t do it alone, he has a lot of helpers. That’s what the problem is for us.”
In skiing, a power struggle is raging between the FIS and the national associations. The president himself had verbally lashed out after his re-election in May 2022 – which was questioned by some associations for procedural reasons. He said he had “a clear mandate for change”, and that the FIS had to be there for all of its members and move away from the association of the “chosen few”, i.e. the Europeans. Eliasch’s ideas have been criticized for a long time, and marketing is the most important point of contention. The FIS boss wants to centralize this; up to now, the associations have marketed their World Cups themselves. This question, he emphasized, is no longer about if, only about how and when.
That was a declaration of war on the associations. “The FIS,” said Eliasch, “owns the rights and is fully entitled to act with them as we wish.” Criticism also arises from the calendar planning as well as from alleged “equalization” because top events like Kitzbühel are put on the same level as smaller events.
The DSV sports director can now well imagine a break between the national associations and the FIS. “To be honest, that would be fine with me,” said Maier: “At some point you have to show a clear edge.” You can’t always just make compromises, “it’s actually all about cost-effectiveness.”
That’s why Maier “wouldn’t have a problem if the Europeans said: ‘Okay, we’re going to become self-employed now’.” Ultimately, this could also be a signal to Eliasch. “I believe that the associations are much more willing to find a compromise or a solution than the FIS President is,” said Maier.