THE FEI General Assembly 2020 took place online this week, with delegates joining virtually from around the world. In his opening speech from the FEI Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, president Ingmar De Vos said he remains confident the Tokyo Olympic Games will go ahead next July.

“This has been a tough balancing act, and of course there will be an impact and there will be measures in place of which we do not yet know the details,” de Vos explained. “But I remain very confident that these Games will go ahead, that our sport will have a wonderful platform. These will definitely be the Games of hope.

“From the very beginning, our main priority at the FEI has been to mitigate the effects and find solutions to protect our community and our sport so that we can not only pick up where we left off, but also learn for the future. This has been and continues to be our focus. It has also been and continues to be an incredible team effort.”

The president then spoke of measures that have been taken since the start of the pandemic. “We were quick to react and time has shown this was very wise. We have since passed over 150 event and sport related Covid-19 resolutions – which I appreciate are not always to the liking of all. But they have been the fruit of collaboration and consensus and they reflect the needs of the community and our values. In this exercise we always have to find a balance between needs for flexibility while still preserving the integrity of our sport and providing a level playing field.

“We were and still will be faced with challenges we never imagined. And in a year where compromise, change and uncertainty have been the norm, I believe, as a community, we have responded with great resilience and perseverance.”

The assembly was informed of an expected loss of CHF 8,229,000 (approx. €7.6 million) for 2020 as a direct result of Covid-19, although this is expected to be reduced by yearend. The projected loss in revenue for the year originally stood at CHF 26,620,000 (€24.5 million), not including the IOC contribution normally distributed in an Olympic year.

However, this was massively reduced by financial management and a rigorous reduction in total expenses of CHF 20,753,000 (€19.1m), including temporary unemployment measures for FEI staff as well as the postponement or cancellation of all non-essential projects. A negative performance to date on the portfolio was also included in the loss forecast for 2020.

The 2021 Budget sees a projected loss of CHF 1,323,755 (€1.2m), but the CFO reported that this can be readily absorbed by the level of FEI reserves without endangering the existence of the FEI. The same principle of deferring non-essential projects will be continued in 2021.