The FIS has postponed the decision on where the Nordic World Ski Championships will take place in 2031. There are boos and whistles for this. And Oberstdorf must continue to tremble.
Actually, a decision should have been made on Wednesday evening where the Nordic World Ski Championships 2031 will take place: in Oberstdorf or in Planica. But instead of a decision, there were boos and whistles at an event as part of the FIS Congress in Belgrade.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I had hoped to conclude tonight by announcing the venues for the 2031 Nordic World Championships. However, the council meetings that led to this delay are ongoing and we have not yet been able to make a final decision,” Nick Fellows, director of FIS TV, said on stage as murmurs began to form in the audience.
Oberstdorf hopes for compensation after the ghost World Cup
“This decision will be made in the next council meetings. I therefore apologize that we were not ready,” said Fellows in attendance the controversial FIS President Johan Eliasch nebulous. Meanwhile, the 2030 Ski Flying World Championships went to Vikersund (Norway).
Oberstdorf now has to wait until a decision is made. It would be a special event for the Allgäu winter sports resort: The last World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf took place in 2021 and thus during the corona pandemic. The athletes jumped and ran in front of empty stands. People are now hoping for some kind of compensation, countless spectators and a real World Cup atmosphere from a possible World Cup in 2031.
The next farce in troubled times
The farce surrounding the postponed decision of the 2031 Nordic World Ski Championships is one of a number of negative headlines: The most important decision in Belgrade will take place on Thursday, when the new FIS president will be elected. Above all, the major winter sports nations, including Germany, want to prevent Eliasch from being re-elected. Big names, including the current alpine dominators Marco Odermatt and Mikaela Shiffrin, had sharply criticized Eliasch in the past few days. The air is getting thinner for the billionaire businessman.
When Eliasch appeared on stage in Belgrade on Wednesday evening, the audience’s applause was quite reserved, with many spectators remaining completely silent. And the postponed decision about the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2031 is unlikely to shed a particularly good light on the current work of the FIS.
