Month: August 2023

After responses from the оrganisers and the IOF regarding the apparent Fair Play violation in the World Cup, I also received a response from the Foot Orienteering Athletes’ Advisory Group. Please find it below with their permission to publish it.

The Senior Event Adviser and the Chair of the FootO Commission declined to provide a public response. That is fully respected. However, it raises the unavoidable question of what could stop somebody from stating their opinion if they believe that everything was done according to the IOF Fair Play Principles.

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This is a very interesting case with lots of learnings for future events. The IOF Fair Play Principles appear to be clear at face value: Organisers shall not allocate persons with a potential conflict of interest to key positions with access to secret/confidential event information.

None of the respondents claimed that the IOF Fair Play Principles were not violated, but there was a wide range of excuses why the violation of the Fair Play Principles did not matter.

In addition, there are also important learnings that may revolutionise our understanding of orienteering preparation at the elite level. For example, there appears to be a consensus that preparation for a given competition happens only during an event. So, as long as the course setters are not involved during competition with their teams, they are perfectly fine preparing their teams for the competition.

There are many rich and far-fetched learnings that we shall review in a separate post. What is clear, though, is that all these learnings shall provide a liberating feeling for future organisers of IOF events who might feel constrained by the IOF Fair Play Principles. No need to worry. There appears to be ample flexibility in getting around the letter and the idealistic interpretations of the rules and principles.

Well, this might not apply to China or other less reputable nations, but that is another story.

The facts about the World Cup Round 2 in Czechia:

Great historic victory in the men’s competition. (the results )

The course setter has been the national team coach of the winner since 2021.

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Shame on anybody who has second thoughts about the optics of the results. This is not dissimilar to other European events.

These events teach orienteers the right way of applying the IOF’s Fair Play principles in practice.

Earlier, I raised questions regarding the application of IOF Fair Play principles in the World Cup Round 2. I wrote to several stakeholders asking their opinion on whether in it is a potential conflict of interest if the coach of a national team is the course setter on a major IOF event. I published the responses from the organisers in my previous post.

The replies received from the IOF President, General Secretary, and the Chair of the Rules Commission are shown below. As with the responses of the organisers, I would argue with some of their key points, but I will do it only after the World Cup event.

I also received responses from the IOF Senior Event advisor and the Chair of the FootO Commission. They suggested getting back to this topic after the event. That is understandable and appreciated.

There was no response, whatsoever, from the Chair of the Ethics Panel and the two FootO representatives of the Athletes Commission.

From the IOF President:

From the IOF General Secretary:

From the Chair of the IOF Rules Commission:

As promised in my previous post that raised questions regarding the application of IOF Fair Play principles in the World Cup Round 2, I wrote to several stakeholders asking their opinion on whether in it is a potential conflict of interest if the coach of a national team is the course setter on a major IOF event.

I received shareable and substantive responses from the Organisers and the National Controller. It is much appreciated. I share them below so everybody can read them.

Although I would argue with some of their key points, I will not do it now because of the respect that they shall focus on delivering the World Cup event.

I received responses from the IOF President, the IOF Senior Event Adviser, the Chair of the FootO Commission, and the Chair of the Rules Commission. I will come back to these later because they were either not substantive or not shareable.

The IOF General Secretary was on vacation but shall return to the office today. There was no response from the FootO reps of the Athletes Commission and the Chair of the Ethics Panel.

Here is the response from the Chairman and the referenced affidavit from the course setter.

And here is the response from the national controller:

Unless I receive a substantive and shareable reply from the IOF functionaries who have yet to respond, I will return to this topic in about ten days’ time after the World Cup.

Good luck with the event, both for the athletes and the organisers!
Everybody needs some luck on an orienteering event.