FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
14 March 2020
LAUSANNE, Switzerland – SportAccord has announced with regret the cancellation of the
SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit 2020, which had been due to take place from
19-24 April in Lausanne, Switzerland.
On 28 February, the Swiss Federal Government imposed a ban on large-scale events
involving more than 1000 people. The ban came into immediate effect and was set to apply
until at least 15 March 2020. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO)
moved to declare the COVID-19 outbreak as an official Pandemic. Yesterday at 14:30 CET in
a press conference, the Canton of Vaud under emergency measures imposed a ban on
events involving more than 50 people until 30 April 2020. SportAccord, which brings
together nearly 2,000 delegates, has taken the necessary step of cancelling SportAccord
2020 to give International Sport Federations, stakeholders, partners and attendees as much
time as possible to make arrangements in light of the cancellation.
"Our priority is the health and welfare of our International Federations and delegates
attending our event, so this decision has been taken with the utmost consideration for those
who were planning to attend SportAccord 2020 in Lausanne." SportAccord President
Raffaele Chiulli said.
"This is obviously an extremely unfortunate situation and we are saddened that our
community will not be able to attend our annual gathering, but we wanted to announce this
decision at the earliest opportunity to enable plans to be adapted accordingly for all
concerned."
SportAccord Managing Director Nis Hatt said: "Following the COVID-19 outbreak,
SportAccord has made every effort to find a viable solution for the staging of the
SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit 2020."
"We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but in taking the decision to cancel the event
at this stage, we have endeavoured to minimise the potential disruption to our delegates’
plans. SportAccord is very grateful for the support of the City of Lausanne, Canton of Vaud,
International Olympic Committee, partners, exhibitors, and delegates in recent weeks. We
are now focusing on the delivery of what promises to be a superb SportAccord World Sport
& Business Summit 2021 in Ekaterinburg and we look forward to welcoming our friends
from around the world to Russia from 23-28 May 2021."
Partners, exhibitors and delegates who had registered to attend SportAccord 2020 in
Lausanne will be contacted shortly with further information.
Follow developments and updates via Twitter @sportaccord or keep up to date via LinkedIn
and Facebook. For enquiries, email info@sportaccord.sport.
ENDS
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