ISSF delegates reject constitution and promise transparency

A proposal for a new constitution was rejected by members of the General Assembly of the International Shooting Sports Federations (ISSF) at their meeting this weekend in Moscow. 

The draft constitution would replace the existing constitution dating back to 1980, writes the ISSF on their website. The draft only managed to get approval from 64% of the delegate votes (148) but needed a 2/3 majority in order to pass.

“The ISSF General Assembly has expressed its democratic decision, and we respect it,” the ISSF President Olegario Vázquez Raña said, according to the ISSF.

By rejecting the changes, the general assembly also put a temporary halt to the speculations that Russian shooting president and ISSF Vice-president Vladimir Lisin would take over the international presidency later this year, two years before Vásquez Raña’s term expire in 2018. Instead, Lisin was given a trophy in recognition of his “loyalty, friendship and dedication to the development of the shooting sport and of the International Shooting Sport Federation”.

Shortly before the congress began, an article at playthegame.org quoted sources that were critical of the new constitution, claiming that it included changes that would make it harder for national federations to make changes to the ISSF and harder to challenge future presidents of the ISSF.

The article further addressed the fact that the ISSF has been very critical of Play the Game’s Sports Governance Observer report, that benchmarks the level of good governance in international sports organisations. In the 2015 report, the ISSF came in last.

In an email to playthegame.org, ISSF Communications Manager Marco Della Dea elaborated on the critique, saying that the ISSF had identified “some incorrect assumptions on which ISSF’s SGO scores have been based”.

However, at the congress, ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber stated to delegates that the federation would increase its transparency in terms of governance in the future.

“[T]ransparency is key in good governance. Therefore, for the first time in our history, we will publish our audited financial reports, the minutes of the ISSF Administrative Council meetings and of the General Assembly on a public area of the ISSF website, in the next weeks,” Schreiber said, according to an ISSF report from the assembly.

Before the congress, the ISSF also approved a new code of ethics, addressing issues like bribery and conflict of interest. According to the new ethics code, the Ethics Committee consists of the President (chairman of the committee), the secretary general, a vice president appointed by the president and chairmen from the Judges and the Athletes Committee.

The financial reports from 2014 and 2015 were unanimously approved in a public ballot. The General Assembly also agreed to continue the suspension of the Kuwaiti shooting federation, a suspension following an IOC suspension in October 2015 of the country due to government interference.