September 8 - Marius Vizer has been formally elected here as the new President of the SportAccord International Convention.
Vizer was chosen as the new President of SportAccord at St Petersburg in May, replacing Dutchman Hein Verbruggen, who had held the role since 2004.
Verbruggen was also President of the SportAccord International Convention, an event organised jointly by SportAccord, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AWOIF).
Vizer will now also take over that position following a meeting here today of the ruling Executive Committee, which comprised of ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti and AWOIF President René Fasel, as well as Vizer and Arkady Rotenberg, who were representing SportAccord.
Vizer's appointment could mean that the Convention, an annual six-day gathering of 2,000 of the most influential people in world sport which is due next year to be held in Belek, Turkey, from April 6 until 11, becomes bigger and assume an even greater position of importance on the calendar.
"First of all I thank very much to my colleagues for the support and the trust," said Vizer, who is also head of the International Judo Federation.
"At the same time, I feel a serious responsibility to develop the present assets according to the new vision and dynamic strategy.
"I hope that together with the management of the present Executive Committee, we can bring more value to the Convention, more revenues and an increased number and quality of the services to our members and stakeholders."