A BIG “No” to the harmonisation of entry fees, and a giant “thumbs up” for the FEI Nations Cup Jumping series were the highlights of the first day of the FEI Sports Forum 2017 staged at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, earlier this week.

The two-day event, attended by over 300 delegates from around the world, was kicked off by FEI President, Ingmar De Vos, who immediately addressed the hot topic of the world governing body’s approval of the Global Champions Tour/Global Champions League (GCT/GCL) rules which, as he said, “has generated a lot of criticism”.

He pointed out however that “it’s difficult to prevent someone from doing what you are doing yourself,” and there’s clearly a lot of energy being invested in promoting the FEI’s own-brand Nations Cup series, which is based on national representation as opposed to the Global Champions League format in which national identity is largely irrelevant.

Swiss star Steve Guerdat flew in from the opening leg of the GCT in Mexico to join the panel for this lively opening discussion.

He’s happy to compete in the Tour but has been outspoken in his criticism of the €2m entry fee per team in the GCL and has been championing the cause of the FEI series which, this year, runs without a sponsor.

“In the past 12 months, there has been an amazing increase in prizemoney in our sport … but it’s not in a healthy place.

“We need to to concentrate on making the Nations Cup the best product, then the money will come,” he said.

“Steve has hit nail on head, if you take care of the product, it will sell itself,” said panellist David Sim from CSM Sport & Entertainment but he insisted that the Nations Cup format needs to be clearer for fans and spectators – “and broadcasters want jeopardy, we need to move to a format that allows that to come to life.”

Talking about the proposal to merge the prizemoney for the Grand Prix and Nations Cup competitions at CSIO events, Guerdat said: “I’ve spoken with fellow riders about this and we think no, especially after what we saw last week at the GCL in Mexico.

“Mixing the team and individual competition is not a good idea, it’s not clear to the audience.

“We think the Nations Cup should be the main product at CSIOs,” he said.

The proposal put forward by the Alliance of Jumping Organisers (AJO) for the harmonisation of entry fees worldwide was widely rejected, and FEI 1st Vice President John Madden addressed the issue of so-called “pay cards” during the afternoon session on CSI/CSIO requirements. New rules, introduced in January 2017, are intended to address this.