Members of the Deaflympic movement remain in the dark about who is in charge of their organisation and what is the progress on organising an Extraordinary Congress.

This week, Hungary and the Nordic and Baltic nations have written open letters to the ICSD asking the ICSD Board to organise an Extraordinary Congress.

The Nordic and Baltic Deaf Sports Federation which has representatives from seven nations (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) have been waiting patiently for positive developments from ICSD. They have now written a collective letter asking the ICSD Board and Secretariat to answer four questions:

1. How is ICSD being managed right now and is Dimitry Rebrov still employed by the organisation ?
2. How is the IOCs financial contribution to the ICSD progressing?
3. During the last Congress of Valtellina Valchiavenna, an extraordinary congress was promised. How has ICSD progressed with the work on this ?
4. It was agreed at the same congress that the Deaflympics and Congress should be held separately. How does ICSD relate to this?

They still hope that the 2021 Summer Deaflympics will go ahead because the athletes ‘should not be made victims because the board of ICSD cannot figure out how to cooperate.’

DEAF SPORTS AUSTRALIA HAS RESPONDED TO THE ICSD APPOINTED ADVISORS AND THE REGIONAL CONFEDERATION CHAIRS. INSTISTING ON URGENCY TO ARRANGE A VIRTUAL EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS.

Kate Armfield, President and Phil Harper, General Manager of Deaf Sport Australia have written an open letter to all ICSD members:

“..Deaf Sport Australia fully supports the urgent need for an Extraordinary Congress (EC) – a suggestion we have recommended previously in recent emails.

We are very disappointed that the Board and the Executive team are dysfunctional and despite attempts to fix the problems, as shared by Adam and Donalda, they can only be solved at an EC. The future of ICSD is at risk.

We do not agree with the letter sent by the ICSD Regional Presidents – they do not have a mandate to make their recommendations or represent our independent views.

For an EC to be fully transparent, it requires co-ordination and meeting management from an eminent person outside of the ICSD.

We request an urgent EC managed online and conducted by an independent chair.  We recommend an IOC representative to conduct the EC and support / information provided by Donalda in her role as honorary member of ICSD.

We agree to the following agenda items:

– approval of Deaf Sport Reform,

– approval of accredited financial audits from past 5 years

– election of the new Executive Board

We ask that all member countries fully support this urgent action.”

The key issue that is concerning members is the impartiality and transparency of the ICSD leadership. Croatia issued a short statement recognising Ammons and Kosa as independent and impartial actors. Australia is calling for an external organisation, perhaps the IOC, to oversee proceedings with Ammons advising.

Chairs of the Deaflympic Regional Confederations say that they have taken control of ICSD and will delay the Extraordinary Congress until 2021.

In a letter to all national deaf sport federations today, the four chairs of the Regional Confederations appear to have taken control of the unstable leadership situation of the ICSD.

The four regional confederations of ICSD are Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe and Pan America.

In an attempt to diffuse the tensions between the two rival leadership groups, they have declared that all members of the Executive Committee, who have split into two camps, will retain their positions until the Extraordinary Congress. This means that the Vice President of World Sport, Mr Perazzolo, will not be promoted to Interim President.

Not only have they removed powers form the Executive Committee, they have also overturned the decision to remove Dimitry Rebrov from his post as CEO and keep him in office ‘to maintain ICSD affairs‘ under the management of the Regional Chairs.

The letter also conflicts the resignation email message sent by former ICSD President Ms Ammons and former legal commissioner Mr Kosa (our earlier blog today). According to the Regional Chairs, the advisors were self appointed and not given direction by the Executive Committee to act as neutrals. Instead, the Regional Chairs claim that the advisors were ‘not allowed to get involved in current issues and discussion with them were stopped.’

The timing of the Ammons/Kosa email is interesting. Their email was received by ICSD members today – two hours before the letter from the confederation chairs. This could suggest that Ammons/Kosa knew its contents would be conflicting and may have decided to get their side of the story in first because the confederation letter is dated 14th October but not released until the 15th, giving Ammons/Kosa time to receive an alert and react.

What will surprise ICSD members is that the substitute leaders have insisted that an Extraordinary Congress cannot be held because of the coronavirus and they are now planning to hold the event in 2021. Many will see this as a stalling tactic and wonder why the meeting cannot be held virtually.

Some are likely to argue that 2021 is a Summer Deaflympic year and elections to appoint a new President can wait until next December when Congress meets one week before the Summer Deaflympics in Brazil.

There is no guarantee that the 2021 Summer Deaflympics will take place as the pandemic could restrict nations from competing and prevent delegates from attending Congress. Earlier this year many ICSD member countries asked for the games to be postponed or cancelled on health and safety grounds but the ICSD chose not to respond. If 50% of the membership are not represented, the Congress will not be quorate and an election cannot be held.

Why did the ICSD Executive remove Rebrov from his post?

Why are the ICSD Executive fighting amongst themselves?