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– It is a joke, to be honest, what they have proposed.

This is what a clearly provoked Johan Eliasch, the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS), says in an exclusive interview that NRK has done in collaboration with Swedish SVT and Finnish YLE.

And now it is clear that there is an open conflict between the world’s most powerful ski leaders.

In this interview, Eliasch reaches out to some of the member countries of the FIS. The reason is an ongoing conflict between the FIS and “Snowflake”, a group consisting of seven of the largest ski nations in the world.

Now Eliasch is counter-attacking countries such as Norway and revealing new details about the conflict.

– Snowflake only wants to transfer ownership and management to itself. In that case, Snowflake will become the new international Skiing Association. Then the FIS would be history, says Eliasch.

You can read the Norwegian Ski Association’s response further down in the matter.

Different versions about protracted conflict

The conflict, which with this interview takes a new turn, has set the minds of several skin nations on fire. Because the conflict is about large sums of money and the power over this money.

The background is as follows:

It was on Friday 26 April that the board of FIS decided that they should go ahead with a controversial agreement.

Until now, the countries, including Norway, have sold their TV rights themselves, but now FIS will instead sell them on behalf of all member countries.

The way it is happening causes Norway and Germany, among others, to react sharply.

– FIS now acts from the top down. They no longer work for the unions. We feel that they have lost sight of their original purpose, said Stefan Schwarzbach in the German association in April.

Actually, the conflict goes back to August last year. It was then that FIS sent out a press release about the agreement they have entered into with the rights company Infront.

The agreement means, among other things:

30 million Swiss francs to be distributed equally to all 75 member countries of the FIS.
In addition, you must get money when you organize world cup races. Here, you are guaranteed a 10 percent increase in income over an eight-year period.

According to Eliasch, there is a guarantee at the bottom of the agreement with Infront which ensures organizers 20 percent more than current agreements. In addition, the organizers will receive 85-88 percent of the money if you manage to sell the rights higher than what the guarantee implies.

– So I think this agreement is a “no-brainer”, he asserts.

But the Snowflake group disagrees. They would rather give more money to the smaller branches in FIS, which consist of a number of different skiing disciplines.

They also want:

Less of the money will go to FIS central and to the rights company Infront
More of the money goes to the national ski federations.

There are two different stories about what has happened since August, when FIS issued the press release.

According to the Snowflake group, they have repeatedly given feedback and requested meetings with the FIS management.

Now FIS president Eliasch is striking back. According to him, Snowflake has neither given feedback on the agreement nor come up with a concrete alternative to the agreement.

– We sent them a draft nine months ago and they have refused to comment. It was only a small group that refused it, others have given feedback. It is a strange approach to fight against an agreement, but at the same time refuse to give feedback, says Eliasch and believes that FIS will be history if Snowflake gets what they want.

– It’s bullshit

On the other hand, Snowflake believes that they have not received enough information about the content of the agreement itself. Therefore, they have wanted to take part in discussions around the agreement, in order to provide their input.

– You have to ask yourself if they need to get that information. Sorry to say it, but it’s complete nonsense.

– Why is it silly?

– It’s silly because we are working with something that is very measurable, namely specific events where they could ask for feedback from TV companies, from third parties and come up with a proposal. They never did that, says Eliasch and adds:

– They had nine months, but they didn’t come up with anything. Sorry to say it, but that’s bullshit.

– The economy is not good enough

On the other side, Norway stands together with nations such as Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden.

Terje Lund leads the work in the Snowflake group on behalf of the Norwegian Ski Association. He strongly disagrees that the agreement that is now on the table is a good agreement.

– We do not think it has good enough governance principles. We don’t think the economics of it are good enough and it is also based on a model that treats all the branches equally, says Lund and explains:

– There is great variation in the income potential of the various branches of FIS. We have launched a model through Snowflake where the rich must give a little more to the poor and they must support to a greater extent than what is outlined in the outline for FIS. Small branches, so they have a greater chance of surviving in the future.

Regarding the claim that Snowflake is really just trying to secure power in FIS, Lund responds as follows:

– We never talked about that at all. We are trying to centralize market rights in FIS in close cooperation with FIS. We have actually said that from day one.

– You have not come up with another agreement that can be compared to the one on the table, why not?

– Once this agreement has been launched and has expired, there are no other players who will come up with another offer. But we have a good dialogue with other actors out there, I can confirm that and we have also confirmed this to FIS.

Lund believes that it has not been possible for them to come up with any concrete input to the agreement that is on the table because they have not seen the agreement itself.

– We still haven’t seen or had an agreement we can comment on. We have commented a lot on the sketch that has been created, both through letters and meetings, so we have really tried to have a dialogue over a long period of time, says Lund.

Disputed board decision

The decision was made after a secret vote where no one knows who voted what. Eliasch is more than happy to answer why the vote was secret:

– The reason is that the board members must vote without any pressure from the countries that nominated them to the board. They must, or must, act in FIS’s best interests. It means the best for the sport and the athletes, not for any political reasons, says Eliasch to NRK.

NRK knows that several of the board members were taken to bed by the fact that they should even have a vote on this at the board meeting. When asked whether the board was informed about the vote in advance, Eliasch replied as follows:

– Everyone was informed. We have discussed this in several board meetings after we landed an agreement with a marketing company which guaranteed a certain payment and which had a deadline. It was time-critical that we made the decision then, says Eliasch.

– So they knew there was going to be a vote?

– This has been a topic that has been discussed and debated. We had a board meeting scheduled.

– Who made the decision that there should be a vote? Was that you?

– These are internal processes in FIS, so I cannot answer that.