At the meeting of the FIDE Executive Board in Abu Dhabi, September 7th 2015, the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov received a proposal to run for the FIFA Presidency.
The proposal was made by the Russian Chess Federation President and FIDE Vice President Andrei Filatov. He said that it is no secret that international sports in general are currently in a difficult situation.
The highly publicized recent FIFA scandal triggered a global public outcry and the upcoming FIFA Presidential Election will undoubtedly be held under massive public scrutiny.
He believed that we consider our support for a specific candidate or perhaps, nominate our own and he suggested nominating Mr. Ilyumzhinov, an experienced sports manager, with expertise in football amongst other sports.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: “I will consider the proposal”
This would certainly allow chess to increase its media exposure. The proposal of Mr. Filatov was met with applause from the audience of the Executive Board.
President Ilyumzhinov responded that he would think about this and noted that he came into FIDE as relatively unknown in the chess world. Since he had become President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation has become united, is now financially sound and runs smoothly.
FIDE is now one of the largest international sports federations which unites 186 countries.
FIDE takes seriously ethical matters as can be seen by the findings and the guilty verdict of the FIDE Ethics Commission during its meeting in Abu Dhabi, on the case concerning Messrs. G. Kasparov and I. Leong, amongst others.
