Stanislav Pozdnyakov: “A well-balanced management system will boost the development of Russian sport”

The President of the Russian Olympic Committee spoke to reporters following the results of the ROC Executive Board Meeting.

– We have discussed a number of important issues. In particular, the date of the next Olympic Assembly has been approved. This year it will take place on December 17, – said Stanislav Pozdnyakov. – Furthermore, the Executive Board supported a whole range of anti-doping measures: now not a single national sports federation will be able to ask the ROC to allocate funds to pay for the services of a coach or any other specialist, whose athletes have been handed disqualifications for violating anti-doping rules. With this decision, we want to once again demonstrate a zero tolerance policy for the use of prohibited substances.

The report “On increasing the efficiency of the work of public associations in sport” was of particular interest. The powers of the ROC and the national sports federations are enshrined in the relevant Federal Law. And we propose to give federations more opportunities to exercise these powers. But not in terms of centralized sports training, but regarding the implementation of anti-doping programmes, international activities, remuneration of full-time specialists, involved in the development of certain sports, whose work is not directly related to achieving results, at the expense of additional budget funds.

We invited the Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin to the meeting and he also took an active part in the discussions.

As a result, it was decided to support the initiative in order to improve the efficiency of public associations.

– Do the federations agree that the ROC should be at the helm?

– The Russian Olympic Committee is a union of public associations that form the organization itself. The federations represent the ROC that is why we are not talking about any leadership role in principle.

We believe that a well-balanced management system where the national sports federations play a key role at the federal level, and where the role of regional Olympic councils is significantly increased, will boost the development of Russian sport.

– How do things stand with the official reinstatement of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) into World Athletics (WA)?

– RusAF sent an athletics development programme to World Athletics on time. Now everything depends on our foreign colleagues who must review and study this proposal and provide us with feedback. As far as I know, World Athletics is planning to send two experts to Russia and negotiations are already underway. To my knowledge, everything is going smoothly.