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FIE unanimously nominates HE Sheikh Saoud as its Honorary Vice President

PARIS, December 05, 2008: The Federation Internationale D' Escrime (FIE), the international fencing federation elected HE Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani as its Vice President of Honour.

This was unanimously decided by all members of the FIE during its executive committee meeting, held on December 05, 2008. The proposal was mooted by the outgoing FIE President, Mr. Rene Roch and ratified by the member nations of the federation.

The decision of the executive committee came during the extraordinary congress as well as the elective congress meetings of the federation, held in the first week of December.

A total of 127 member federations were present at the extraordinary congress.

The Extraordinary Congress called by the Executive Committee approved the following statutes modifications, as well:
2.3 ZONAL CONFEDERATIONS
In order that a confederation be recognized by the FIE, it is necessary that their statutes provide that the President of the FIE is an ex-officio member of their executive committee. As such, he has the right to vote.

5.2.4 In addition, the President in office of each of the five geographic zones is an ex-officio member with full rights of the Executive Committee of the FIE. As such, he has the right to vote. The five zones are the following: Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

4.1.1 The President of the F.I.E., the 15 other elected members of the Executive Committee and the members of the commissions (other than the Special Rules for World Championships and Olympic Games Commission and the Athletes Commission) are elected by the Elective Congress. They are eligible for re-election at the end of their term of office.

4.3.3 For the election to the Executive Committee the 15 members who have obtained the most votes are elected, provided they are of different nationalities.

4.3.4 As about 20% of the elected members must be women, if the 15 members who have obtained the most votes do not include 3 women, the Executive Committee will consist of the first 12 members elected and the 3 women candidates for the Executive Committee who have obtained the greatest number of votes.

If one or several of the women selected is of the same nationality as one of the first 12 men elected, she (or they) will be stood down in favour of the next woman of a nationality not already represented.

If no woman has offered herself as candidate, or if the woman or women identified in accordance with the above process are of the same nationality as the 12 men of different nationalities with the greatest number of votes, the 15 men of different nationalities with the greatest number of votes are elected.

1.2 NEW NATIONAL MEMBER FEDERATIONS
The Congress ratified the provisional affiliations of the following Federations which had been approved by the Executive Committee: Belize, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Syrian Arab Republic, Sri Lanka and Togo.

The FIE has 134 national member federations.

II. ELECTIVE CONGRESS
2.1 APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE 2007 CONGRESS
The 2007 Congress report was unanimously approved.

2.2 ELECTIONS
a) Presidency:
Mr Alisher Usmanov (RUS) was elected the President of the FIE with 66 votes against the 61 votes garnered by Mr Rene Roch (FRA, MH).

Immediately after his election, Mr Alisher Usmanov proposed to nominate Mr Rene Roch (FRA, MH) as the President of Honour of the FIE.

This was unanimously approved and ratified. Usmanov asked Roch to help him in the near future with matters pertaining to sports administration and the federation.

Usmanov also proposed that should there be a function within the executive activities of the federation that interest Roch, he would be welcomed and both would work in tandem upon it.