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.
Two Big Ears 