GENERAL MEETINGS OF INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATIONS: FEATURES OF HOLDING IN A REMOTE FORMAT

Abstract

International sport (especially professional) has become increasingly centralized over the past hundred years, driven by its high popularity in all countries, the need to ensure uniform rules for all, and coordination of the activities of various stakeholders for the development of sports. The leading role in international sport is played by the International Olympic Committee and international sports federations, which form policy and guide the development of various sports. International sports federations are organizations with a unique legal status, since on the one hand they carry out their activities mainly on five or six continents (parts of the world) and create their own systems of regulatory and legal acts, and on the other hand they are subject to the laws of the country in which they are legally registered (most often Switzerland). The management of international sports federations is a difficult challenge for the organizations themselves, since their members are always national federations from different countries of the world, which, although united by a common goal of developing sport, are representatives of different cultures with their own interests and ambitions. The governing bodies of international sports federations usually consist of several levels: the General Meeting / General Assembly (as the highest collegiate governing body, which has the authority to make decisions on the most important strategic issues of the federation's development and to elect the main officials of the executive bodies) and the executive bodies (President, Presidium, Council, Executive Committee, etc., which carry out the daily management of the federations). In this context, the holding of the General Meeting (General Assembly) of these international sports federations, as their highest governing body, is an interesting subject for research. This article analyzes the legal aspect of convening and holding the General Meeting of international sports federations in a remote format and using modern technologies. Holding the General Meetings of international sports federations in a remote format since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has become not only one of the possibilities but often the only legitimate solution to urgent issues, decisions on which can only be made by the General Meetings.