FEI President Ingmar De Vos to Review World Equestrian Games' Format

Dressage

FEI

FEI President Ingmar de Vos published his Presidential Programme for 2018-2022 called "A Roadmap for the Future".

De Vos discusses his four-year plan for his next presidential term and pledges that he will review the World Equestrian Games and Championships objective "with an open mind in order to make the best choices for the future and sustainability of our sport."

The World Equestrian Games' format has proven to be hardly sustainable with more athletes competing and costs ever increasing.

De Vos stated:

"Although we have further strengthened the minimum eligibility criteria, we must recognise that due to the successful development of our sport in many regions it is more and more difficult to find organisers that are capable of organising an event of such magnitude. It is also increasingly difficult for NFs to send athletes in all the disciplines for which their athletes achieved the minimum eligibility requirements. "

"We must have the courage to look at the future of our World Championships and ask if the WEG is still the best format. Closely related to this is also the New Norm introduced by the IOC to reduce costs for organisers and develop concepts that make it again feasible for organisers to bid to host World Championships. Whereas we still would promote multi-disciplinary bids, we must ask ourselves if it is still realistic to impose a model integrating all our disciplines in one event. If we want to be successful we need to have a model that creates competition and can interest a lot of organisers rather than having to fight to find and motivate one organiser for WEG."