A man dressed in a black suit walks into a meeting room in a five-star hotel located in the Gulf of Venice. Swedish-English billionaire Johan Eliasch has arrived for an interview jointly requested by the Nordic broadcasting companies Norway’s NRK, Sweden’s SVT and .
During the winter, the companies have investigated the ongoing power struggle in the FIS, the International Ski Federation. FIS chairman Eliasch has not responded to interview requests sent by Nordic broadcasting companies in four months, but now he has responded affirmatively to a 30-minute interview invitation on a subject that is tearing skiing circles apart.
– Good day, Eliasch greets politely and shakes the journalists’ hands.
The interview takes place in Slovenia, in the spa town of Portoroz with 3,000 inhabitants, located in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea. There, a hotel by the sea hosts the FIS spring meeting of the International Ski Federation.
Even though the temperature outside is almost 25 degrees, inside, in the current topic, the distance between Eliasch and the big skiing countries is cold.
The dispute boils down to the fact that the FIS wants to centralize the media and marketing contracts for the World Cup of Skiing, which include television rights as the most essential part.
Up until now, the national federations organizing the games have signed contracts independently. They bring, for example, about 3.5 million euros to the Finnish Ski Association’s coffers every year. The amount makes up half of the Ski Federation’s budget.
Finland and seven other major European skiing countries consider that the version of the centralized agreement presented by the FIS for the years 2026–2034 does not contain sufficient guarantees for an increase in income from the current level.
The eight countries in question are important to the FIS, because they organize more than 80 percent of Nordic skiing and alpine skiing World Cup competitions. To protect their interests, the countries have formed an alliance known as Snowflake, which has not agreed to sign the FIS centralized agreement.
Countries have accused Eliasch of being autocratic. They got more snow in their house at the end of April, when the FIS board unexpectedly voted to approve the centralized agreement.
– This has been a long democratic process about how we will centrally organize international broadcast rights in the future. It is much better than the current model, Eliasch says.
The FIS has 75 member countries that organize various level competitions under the umbrella organization. The majority of them accepted the centralized agreement.
As a carrot, each country that signs the centralized agreement gets, among other things, a signing bonus of 400,000 euros – whether it’s the Mexican Ski Federation that organizes one of the lowest-level FIS competitions a year, or a large country that organizes dozens of top-level competitions.
According to Eliasch, there is a guarantee in the centralized agreement that guarantees the race organizers a 20 percent better return than the current one. Eliasch says that if the organizers manage to sell the media rights of their event for an amount greater than the Guaranteed Amount, they will receive 85–88 percent of the surplus.
– In my opinion, this agreement is self-evident in its reasonableness, Eliasch says.
However, the Snowflake countries did not grab the carrot, they want more information about the agreement.
The parties have different versions
Influential skiing decision-makers now tell two stories.
According to their own words, the Snowflake countries have repeatedly been in contact with FIS, whose management has not given them further explanations.
Now Eliasch strikes back.
– We sent them a draft contract nine months ago. They declined to comment on it. Only a small group (Snowflake) refused, others gave feedback. It is a peculiar approach to oppose the agreement, but at the same time not to give feedback, says Eliasch.
According to Eliasch, Snowflake countries do not act in the name of common interest, but want to increase their power.
– In reality, they (Snowflake) wanted to transfer ownership and management to them. Then they would become the new International Ski Federation, and the current FIS would be history. This was their version of a centralized contract. What they proposed was really a complete joke, says Eliasch.
According to the Snowflake countries, the crux of the problem is that they have not seen the entire agreement between Eliasch and the media company Infront, only a draft. Eliasch does not see the need to tell everything.
– Ask yourself why they would need to know more about it. I hate to say it, but it’s complete nonsense, Eliasch says.
Nonsense?
– It’s nonsense, Eliasch says, but refuses to elaborate, but goes back to criticizing the Snowflake countries’ way of working.
– Snowflake had nine months to come up with something, and it didn’t come up with anything reasonable. So, sadly, their operation is rubbish.
Why closed voting?
The centralized agreement has also raised cross-behavior within the FIS board. When the board approved the centralized agreement at its April meeting, the vote could not be found on the agenda before the meeting began.
It surprised not only the rank-and-file representatives of the government, but also some of the higher management. In addition, voting was held behind closed doors. It means that the members of the board do not know how each voted. FIS has only said that the government approved the motion with a majority decision.
FIS Japanese Vice President Aki Murasato told Urheilu before Eliasch’s interview that he does not know the exact outcome of the vote. Murasato didn’t know who decided the vote, but he guessed it was Eliasch.
Eliasch refuses to confirm whether he initiated the vote.
– This is an internal FIS matter that does not belong in a television interview, says Eliasch.
However, he agrees to tell why the voting was carried out behind closed doors.
– It gave the board members the opportunity to vote without pressure from the national unions that elected them. They must have the right to vote as they wish. Their job is to think about the interest of the FIS, says Eliasch.
Interrupted the interview
Eliasch has been the chairman of FIS since 2021. Since then, FIS has been in legal limbo, and several key personnel have left the umbrella organization. Many departures have been based on dissatisfaction with Eliasch.
The persons interviewed by the Nordic broadcasting companies claim that Eliasch acts autocratically, which has eroded the national federations’ trust in the FIS leadership.
How do you respond to these claims?
– My answer to this is that we got 97 percent approval (at the 2021 FIS Congress, the highest decision-making body) for the rule changes we needed for the centralized agreement. We made a unanimous decision on the strategic plan. And now we had a majority decision on the centralized agreement in the government. What is not democratic about this? Eliasch asks.
After this, Eliasch announces that he has to go to another meeting and refuses to answer any further questions. NRK, SVT and asked Eliasch for a 30-minute interview, but Eliasch leaves after only 10 minutes. As he leaves, Eliasch also states that he is dissatisfied with the interview.
Norway denies Eliasch’s claims
After the interview, representing the Norwegian Ski Federation in Snowflake Terje Lund disputes Eliasch’s claim that Snowflake is trying to gain dominance in a centralized agreement.
– We never talked about that. We strive to centralize the market rights in FIS in close cooperation with FIS. We have done this since day one.
Lund reminds that the differences in the market for ski sports under FIS are huge. This is also supported by the audience readings presented at the Portorož meeting, where the most popular sport, alpine skiing, gathered more audiences at the TV receivers than cross-country skiing, snowboarding, freestyle and combined combined.
– Through Snowflake, we have created a model where the rich give a little more to the poor and support them more than what is outlined in the FIS draft. This way, smaller species would have a better chance of surviving in the future, says Lund.
Executive Director of the Austrian Ski Association Christian Scherer demands a dialogue from Eliasch and other FIS management.
– Ultimately, the national federations form the FIS. However, under this management, that does not seem to be the case. If the federations are the FIS, the management of the FIS must be able to insure all the national federations.
Scherer’s message to Eliasch is clear. Even though Eliaschi has the majority behind him, he needs to understand who’s running the show.
– FIS will never get big contracts if countries like Austria, Germany, Norway and so on are not involved. Our events are the sport’s biggest showcase for both current and future sponsors of FIS. We have already given a lot to the FIS family.
– If the FIS cannot guarantee the World Cup games for these countries, it is no longer just a matter of a centralized media agreement, but the FIS risks losing its main sponsor. This is something that the FIS management must respect and keep in mind, says Scharer.
Judging by the clear differences of opinion of Eliasch, Lund and Scherer, the skirmish of decision-makers is far from over. Eliasch’s presidency lasts until 2026, when the centralized agreement approved by the FIS board should enter into force. However, the Snowflake countries have questioned whether the FIS board even has the legal authority to decide on something as fundamental as a centralized media and marketing agreement.
The next drama of the dispute is likely to take place in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the FIS’s supreme decision-making congress will meet at the beginning of June.