Alisher Usmanov, the return. The Russian billionaire of Uzbek origin should, barring a very unlikely scenario, find again his office and his large seat as president of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), less than three years after having had to leave them.
The body has published on its website the list of candidates for the presidential election, scheduled for the next congress on November 30. It includes two names: the Swede Otto Drakenberg and the Russian Alisher Usmanov.
Emmanuel Katsiadakis, interim president of the FIE since the forced withdrawal of the Russian billionaire in March 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine, is not a candidate. The Greek has not chosen to try to transform the provisional into a more lasting status.
Two for one, then. On the one hand, a Swede with a solid record in the fencing world and in the business world. At 58, Jan Sten Otto Drakenberg competed at the Seoul Games in 1988, where he took 8th place in the team épée event. The following year, he stumbled just off the podium (4th) in the individual competition at the world championships. President of the Swedish Fencing Federation since 2017, he has led several listed companies during his professional career, including Goodyear Dunlop for the Nordic countries and Carlsberg Sweden.
Opposite, Alisher Usmanov. At 71, the "philanthropist" is running for a new term. Elected for the first time in 2008, then reappointed in 2012, 2016 and 2021, he aims to regain his place as president of the FIE, after two and a half years of withdrawal forced by political sanctions.
Reading the presentation of the two candidates published by the FIE leaves little room for doubt: Alisher Usmanov should win. The document lists the national federations " presenting or supporting » the oligarch. There are 103 of them, from five continents. Among them, Greece, homeland of interim president Emmanuel Katsiadakis.
If his declared supporters vote for him on Saturday, November 30, early in the afternoon, Alisher Usmanov will be assured of more than a hundred votes. His rival, Otto Drakenberg, is presented by only one federation, that of Sweden. His own, therefore.
A detail that is anything but anecdotal: the FIE congress is to be held in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Alisher Usmanov's native country. He will be playing at home.
« I consider the nomination and support of my candidacy for the FIE President election by more than 100 national federations around the world as a sign of confidence and recognition of the achievements of international fencing over the last 15 years., Alisher Usmanov said in a statement. I would like to thank each of the 103 federations, as well as the sports directors who supported me, for their kind words. The procedure for electing the FIE President is regulated by the statutes of the organization, we must wait for the congress at the end of November in Tashkent. As before, I remain committed to my favorite sport and wish the international fencing community new successes and sporting victories."
For the FIE, and more broadly for fencing, the billionaire's return is good news. Since his arrival in Lausanne after the 2008 Beijing Games, Alisher Usmanov has regularly made a personal contribution to the body's finances and to the development of the discipline.
His largesse has not only benefited fencing. In February 2020, Alisher Usmanov donated to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne the historic manuscript setting out the initial plan for the modern Olympic Games, written by Pierre de Coubertin in 1892. The billionaire had obtained it three months earlier at an auction in New York. Price: €8 million.
