SportAccord proudly announced the opening of its first regional headquarters in Moscow, Russia. The regional headquarters were inaugurated on Monday, March 16 in the presence of distinguished sporting officials, sport legends and special guests, including SportAccord president, Marius L. Vizer; SportAccord Convention executive committee member, Arkady Rotenberg; Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko; Russian Olympic Committee president, Alexander Zhukov; Gymnastics legend, Nadia Comaneci; athletics champion, Yelena Isinbayeva; tennis legend, Ilie Nastase; former Russian tennis star, Elena Dementieva; wrestling legend, Aleksandr Karelin; swimming champion, Camelia Potec; FIFA World Cup winning captain, Lothar Matthaus; SportAccord Multi-Sport Games chairman, Timur Kulibayev; sport marketing legend, Ion Tiriac; SportAccord council members, Antonio Espinos and Raffaele Chiulli; and judo hall of famer, Ezio Gamba.
The opening of the first regional headquarters of SportAccord in Moscow is a realisation of the announcement made by Mr. Vizer in his presidential bid of 2013 and will work closely with the administrative headquarters based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Mr. Vizer expressed his pleasure at the opening of the Moscow office by saying, “The Moscow office of SportAccord is the first step in our effort to expand our operations globally. We are thankful to our Russian partners and all SportAccord members for their continuous support of sport. Our activities in Russia will enable us to explore new avenues of partnering with the expanding sports industry in Russia and Europe, at large. Also, our presence in the great city of Moscow will also empower and enable us to work for the benefit of our member federations effectively by accruing knowledge about the sports scenario in Russia. The contribution of this office to the development of the international sports community will be in accordance with the manner that Russia has always supported the sports movement”
The opening of the SportAccord office in Moscow is in keeping with the growing international profile of Russia as a major sports hub. High-profile international sporting events such as the 2014 Winter Olympics and the Russian Grand Prix have already been organised in the country, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup is a major upcoming event, among many others. The SportAccord Convention World Sport and Business Summit will also be organised in Sochi from April 19-24 this year, where delegates from the international sports federations and the global sports industry would be gathered in one place for a period of five days.
