The FEI Awards are normally held each year as part of the FEI General Assembly
2020 FEI General Assembly in November will be held online and finalisation of Championship events were among the topics finalised on Friday at the FEI Board Meeting
FEI General Assembly 2020
The FEI General Assembly 2020, which was due to be held in Johannesburg (RSA) in November, has been cancelled and will now be held online due to Covid-19 social distancing requirements and travel restrictions.
The decision was approved by the FEI Board during its three-day videoconference meeting this week, and the Board also gave its unanimous support to allocate next year’s FEI General Assembly to Johannesburg.
With the pandemic legally defined as “force majeure” in Switzerland, the country’s Federal government has adopted ad hoc temporary measures to facilitate the organisation of General Assembly meetings for Swiss based associations like the FEI.
Under these special regulations, the FEI is permitted to hold its General Assembly electronically. Other large international gatherings, including next month’s IOC Session, will also be held online.
The FEI is currently considering a number of electronic solutions for running the General Assembly online and will communicate these to National Federations in due course
“It will be the first time that an international equestrian gathering of this scale will be held in South Africa and we look forward to welcoming delegates from around the world to our world class meeting facilities. 2021 is the centenary of the FEI, and we feel privileged that our event will form part of the 100-year celebrations” said President of the National Federation of South Africa Adv Willem Edeling SC.
Allocations of Championships
The FEI Board also allocated FEI Championships and key events for 2021 and 2022 during its three-day videoconference meeting this week.
In addition to the normal allocation process for the 2021 and 2022 Championships, following the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to many Championships on the 2020 Calendar, the Board considered a number of requests made by the affected 2020 Organisers and National Federations.
“The pandemic has created an extra layer of complexity for us,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said. “The FEI General Regulations set out a timetable for when FEI Championships are held to avoid clashes between Continental and World Championships in the same categories in a given year so that National Federations do not have the cost of sending teams to major Championships in the same year, however, in these unprecedented circumstances, the FEI Board has agreed to deviate from this for specific events.”
“In some cases it has been possible to reach agreement with Championship Organisers to reschedule. Regrettably, in some events the FEI Board had to agree to cancellations in 2020 particularly with the Youth Championships, following a clear recommendation from the relevant Technical Committee, as a lack of recent competition mileage poses an unacceptable risk to athletes and horses. In each case we took the decision only after every avenue for a resolution was explored and exhausted.”
The Board agreed that any further Championships that need to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic before the end of December 2020 will not be held later in 2020 or rescheduled to 2021 to avoid further logistical difficulties with rearranging Championships in an Olympic and Paralympic year following the postponement of Tokyo 2020.
“The Covid-19 situation is still very fluid and no one can be certain of where it will lead us in the weeks and months to come,” the FEI President said.
“There may be other cancellations before the end of the year, but in order give our community clarity, the FEI will not reopen discussions on any other 2020 Championships. Any further cancellations will not be considered for reallocation or postponement.”
The Board confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 FEI Eventing European Championships for Ponies originally allocated to Strzegom (POL) as the alternate dates offered by the Organisers in Poland were not in line with a Board resolution passed in April that Youth and Pony Championships should not take place outside the school holidays. As there was no possibility of holding FEI Eventing European Championships for Juniors and Young Riders during school holidays, for athlete and horse welfare reasons, the cancellation of these Championships at Hartpury (GBR) was also confirmed.
However, the Board decided that Organisers, such as Hartpury (GB), whose Championships had been cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic were eligible to enter bid processes for future unallocated editions of the Championships even though the deadline for submission of bids had passed and it was confirmed that in 2022 the FEI Eventing European Championship for Juniors & Young Riders will be held at Hartpury (GBR), dates TBC
