FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE GYMNASTIQUE
Economic situation
I set out to achieve financial self-sufficiency, or what I have always termed economic stability, in
order to guarantee that our programmes are protected. In other words, I have attempted to
establish a balance between revenue from the Olympic Games and revenue from broadcasting
contracts.
The reason for this is well documented, of course: in order to be able to face any potential
economic crisis, we must be able to ensure that our income is sufficient to cover the Federation's
operational needs.
This is what is needed in order to overcome economic crises and address the difficulties of each
national federation.
In the past few years, costs have exceeded projected income, and we have been forced to draw on
our reserves in order to maintain the level of expenditure necessary to develop our programmes.
The modernisation that we hope to effect will require a financial commitment from all of us, as well
as changes to our old competition systems, both with regards to organisation and selection
procedures.
Federations that organise world class competitions will be asked to take steps towards setting up a
modern sporting infrastructure.
The FIG will need to undergo some internal reorganisation in order to effectively promote, market
and popularise the image of gymnastics in the global sports market.
The Technical Committees must modernise our competitions to ensure that we have a "product"
that holds both popular and commercial appeal for our target market(s).
In essence, our sport is constrained by certain technical and organisational conventions that will be
difficult to change without considerable effort. It is not easy to break with those traditions to which
we are accustomed and which may seem immutable to us. However, if we wish to evolve
commercially, we must be willing to accept change.
With regards to the balance sheet, as already mentioned above, we are currently going through a
global economic crisis, which has forced us to draw on our reserves in order to support all of the
federations involved in the World Championships.
Programme commitments have generally been met, or even exceeded if we include previous
programmes.
From an economic perspective, investments have had a positive (albeit limited) effect, bearing in
mind market conditions and currency exchange fluctuations.
The reserves that we have built up as a precautionary measure give us some room for manoeuvre;
nonetheless, at such times of uncertainty on the financial markets, diversification is not enough to
guarantee that our purchasing power can be maintained on a permanent basis.
Modern gymnastics, which is becoming increasingly technical, needs commensurate economic
resources on one hand to promote gradual technical change in the federations that require them,
and on the other to provide greater assistance to the more established federations in their efforts to
offer support for elite-level gymnastics.
Fortunately, the Russian bank VTB has reiterated its financial backing, enabling the FIG to support
the Continental Unions adequately.
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FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE GYMNASTIQUE