The Global Association of International Sports Federations has had a chequered history but is quickly running out of road with plans to disband the body. As Geoff Berkeley reports, many see this as an IOC power grab.
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an the International Olympic Committee gain any more control in the world of sport? This is a question Patrick Nally asks when discussing the potential dissolution of the long-established Global Association of International Sports Federations. Nally, who is widely acknowledged as the founding father of sports marketing, has been involved in GAISF for almost 50 years, helping the umbrella body for Olympic and non-Olympic sports secure permanent headquarters in Monte Carlo in 1976.
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But GAISF now faces the looming threat of liquidation in what is being considered as an attempted power grab by the IOC. “Unfortunately, sport does attract people who want personal gain and empowerment which gets rather distracted from the real need to have sport managing itself in a better manner,” said Nally, who is head of the International Federation of Match Poker - an observer member of GAISF. “If those that are currently managing it aren’t up for the job then let’s change them.
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