The Nordic broadcasting companies reported on Wednesday about the crisis between the major skiing countries and the International Ski Federation FIS.
The Ski Federations of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia have had enough of FIS’s activities. The situation heated up last fall, when FIS demanded that all national federations sign a new media contract. According to it, starting in 2026, FIS would handle TV and marketing contracts centrally.
Until now, each ski association of the country that organized the FIS sports World Cup has managed the media contract independently. The Finnish Ski Federation has an agreement with the media company Infront that runs until 2026. The value of the contract is not public information, but according to Urheilu’s sources, the media revenue from the Ruka and Salpauselä World Cups brings the Ski Association around 3–3.5 million euros per season.
Infront is the media cooperation partner of all major Ski Federations that organize World Cup competitions (with the exception of Austria). In the future, FIS wants to handle media contract negotiations with its chairman alone by Johan Eliasch under.
FIS announced last July that the eight-year new operating model will come into effect in the summer of 2026, but the major skiing countries refused to sign the agreement.
Executive Director of the Finnish Ski Federation Ismo Hämäläinen does not agree to open the content of the centralized agreement presented by FIS or the country-specific amounts.
– When I go to 2026 and beyond, there is uncertainty in the market. FIS did not provide sufficient grounds on which the estimates it presented are based, says Hämääinen.
According to Urheilu’s information, the FIS gave the national skiing federations a month to study and approve the extensive legal and technical agreement. Hääläinen refuses to comment on the length of the warning period.
– When the basis for decision-making is not known, it is quite difficult to sign things, Hämääläinen is content to state.
The coalition wants a solution with FIS
Urheilu reported on Wednesday together with the Norwegian and Swedish broadcasting companies NRK and SVT that Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Sweden and Finland have formed a coalition called Snowflake. It is based on dissatisfaction with FIS’s unilateral way of operating.
Hämäläinen was not in Zurich, Switzerland, on Wednesday, where the FIS agreed for the first time to negotiate with the Snowflake coalition. The countries’ ski associations were represented by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. FIS was represented by Chairman Eliasch, Secretary General Michel Vion and commercial manager Christian Salomon.
Hämäläinen admits that the only option on the Snowflake countries’ table is to establish their own racing series. In December, the EU court decided in relation to the football Superliiga project that sports associations cannot oppose the creation of private leagues. The same legalities also apply to skiing, which gives the Snowflake countries a free hand if they do not achieve the success they want in negotiations with the FIS.
According to Hämäläinen, the idea of a racing series outside the World Cup only exists at the level of an idea so far.
– It has not even been discussed yet how such a thing would be implemented. It would only come into question if FIS did not come to the negotiating table and there was no progress there.
Executive Director of the Swedish Ski Association Pernilla Bonde described Wednesday’s meeting between Snowflake and FIS as constructive. The parties will meet again in the coming weeks.
Without FIS, there is no point in the Olympics
So far, the countries belonging to the Snowflake coalition are not considering leaving the FIS. The reason is clear: FIS is the umbrella organization of skiing under the International Olympic Committee, which the national Ski Federations must belong to in order to participate in, for example, the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The World Championships in Nordic skiing, alpine skiing and snowboarding, as well as freestyle, are also products of FIS. However, the position of the Snowflake countries in the negotiations is emphasized by the fact that they will organize all the World Championships in the sports in question in 2025 and 2027.
In Nordic skiing, Norway’s Trondheim and Sweden’s Falun will host the 2025 and 2027 World Championships. Although the 2029 World Cup organizer has not yet been officially decided, the Finnish Ski Federation was the only one to submit an application before the deadline.
Austria and Switzerland have been able to organize the 2025 and 2027 World Championships in alpine skiing, snowboarding and freestyle.
Although FIS is not a party to the World Cup media agreements between the national Ski Federations and Infront, FIS owns the rights to distribute the World Cup competitions. From the summer of 2021, when Eliasch became FIS president, the FIS has locked the World Cup competitions, which are vital to the national ski federations, just a few months before the start of the season. Previously, the countries had a preliminary calendar for 2–3 years.
If the classic events of winter sports are left out of the invoices, the short warning period and uncertainty have eaten away the value of the marketing agreements made by the national Ski Federations and organizers.
Disputes escalated
Alpine skiing is by far the largest FIS sport in terms of market value. Especially the money that moves in the Alpine Skiing World Championships is in a completely different category than, for example, in the Nordic skiing sports.
According to information from Urheilu, NRK and SVT, FIS will pay Trondheim, for example, about 13-14 million euros in organizing money for next year’s World Championships. The amount received from the FIS by the Alpine Skiing World Cup organizers is well over 30 million euros.
Despite the large sums, the alpine skiing front is buzzing. During the last week, the FIS has had a public spat with the Swiss Ski Federation over organizing the 2027 Alpine Ski World Championships in Crans-Montana. The parties accuse each other of giving false statements and broken promises in connection with the race search. The World Cup organizing agreement is still unsigned, and the FIS is threatening to take the games away from Crans-Montana.
The organizing agreement between FIS and Falun for the 2027 World Championships in Nordic skiing has also not been signed. The next World Championships to be held in 2029 are to be awarded to Lahti at the FIS congress in early June.