FIS President Johan Eliasch comments on the agreement regarding the central marketing rights and defends himself against the accusations by Odermatt and Co. that he has not communicated transparently.
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- The national ski federations - with the exception of Austria - and the International Ski Federation FIS have reached an agreement in the dispute over the central marketing of international media rights.
- FIS President Johan Eliasch says: "This gives us phenomenal opportunities to build the sport."
- Regarding the rejection of CVC's 400 million offer, he says: "There was nothing to be transparent about."
After a long back and forth, the national ski federations and the FIS have finally reached an agreement in the dispute over the central marketing of international media rights in the Ski World Cup. The new agreement with marketer Infront will apply for eight years from the 2026/27 season.
What centralized marketing means
- The international media and broadcasting rights for all FIS World Cup events, with the exception of those in Austria, will be marketed by Infront in future.
- The agreement with the agency comes into force in 2026/27 and is valid until 2033/34.
- The federations hope that this will lead to higher revenues and "promising new opportunities for fan loyalty through innovative digital offerings".
FIS President Johan Eliasch was on site at the speed races in St. Moritz and said of the deal: "It's great, it gives us phenomenal opportunities to build the sport."
Swiss-Ski is also delighted: "We are very pleased with this agreement and firmly believe that this is a first major step towards further developing the FIS World Cup and thus snow sports as a whole in such a way that we gain additional appeal," Diego Züger, Co-CEO of Swiss-Ski, was quoted as saying in a press release last week.
An agreement has now been reached that corresponds to Swiss-Ski's vision of centralized marketing. According to Züger, the negotiations had dragged on for so long because the ideas were far apart at the beginning. However, numerous changes were made to the original FIS proposal, according to Swiss-Ski.
"It would of course be much better to have everyone on board"
Not only Swiss-Ski, but also almost all other major World Cup organizing countries have agreed to the new contract, the Media Rights Centralization Agreement (MRCA), with the FIS. The big and important exception, however, is still Austria, which continues to fight the FIS on its own. Eliasch says: "We will see where we end up. It would of course be much better to have everyone on board, but centralization - the concept - that's what counts in the end."
Six months ago, the Austrian federation filed a lawsuit against the FIS in Vienna. The Austrians fear a loss of revenue of at least one million francs.
The dispute over CVC's entry
Another party interested in entering the sport of skiing has become public in recent weeks. It is the financial company CVC, which has already invested a lot of money in Formula 1, football and tennis.
CVC offered 400 million euros for the marketing of all FIS sports, but the FIS around President Eliasch refused. This led to fierce criticism from alpine athletes, including superstars Marco Odermatt and Mikaela Shiffrin. In a public letter, they called for more transparency, with the American writing: "We don't pretend to know everything. We are simply asking for more transparency and better consideration of our voices and the offers on the table."
Confronted with the accusation, FIS President Eliasch told blue Sport: "I couldn't be more transparent, the problem was the CVC offer didn't include any details. So there was nothing to be transparent about. What we said to CVC was very simple: can we have more details. Until I have more details, there is nothing we can talk about."
Eliasch also explained that he had met with the CVC in London two weeks ago, following the letter from the athletes. He has known the CVC for many years, knows the founder and has investments with their partners. They are in contact. Although Eliasch rejected the 400 million offer, he states: "There are many private acquisition funds and many financial institutions that are interested in what we are doing. This confirms that we are on the right track. Otherwise they wouldn't be interested."
