FIS President Under Fresh Attack With Questions Raised About Finances & Direction of Travel for the Organisation
22nd May 2026
Last modified on May 26th, 2026
The International Ski & Snowboard Federation runs elite snowsport competition across the world and is in a bitter power struggle ahead of upcoming elections.
Several nations have submitted statements to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation expressing concern about the organisation’s direction under Johan Eliasch.
It comes ahead of next month’s election for position of president.
Norway, the United States, Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Canada have issued a letter to FIS, which claims the federation’s financial situation has “deteriorated significantly” since Elias took over in 2021.
Italy and France are not signatories to the letter.
“Protecting and improving the long-term financial sustainability of the organisation must therefore be a shared priority,” the letter stated.
“Only a financially stable and responsibly managed FIS will be able to safeguard existing distributions and, ideally, further strengthen support mechanisms for NSAs in the future.”
The full text of the letter is posted at the end of this article.
“We believe that the current president, Johan Eliasch, should not continue to lead the FIS,” said the secretary general of the Norwegian Ski Federation, Ula Keil, to Skiforbundet.
Johan Eliasch has had to take Georgian citizenship in order to contest the election as his home nation of Sweden and adopted country of Great Britain refused to back him..
Eliasch is aiming for a third term but he has ruffled many feathers and some see him as running FIS as an autocrat and forcing his will on members.
Others see him as a visionary who is reforming an organisation that desperately needs it.
It is a power struggle for the heart and soul of FIS, and its future.
See more on Inside the Games
The head of GB Snowsport, Vikky Gosling, is in the heated election to run the International Ski & Snowboard Federation.
Candidate List:
- Johan Eliasch (GEO)
- Anna Harboe Falkenberg (DEN)
- Victoria Gosling (GBR)
- Alexander Ospelt (LIE)
- Dexter Paine (USA)
For further details of the upcoming election see this earlier PlanetSKI article:
The election will take place during the FIS Congress on 11th June 2026 in Belgrade, Serbia.
All candidature documents are available here.
Gurgl World Cup. Image © PlanetSKI
Here is the full text of the letter:
From: Kipp Nelson, USA; Christian Scherer, AUT; Roswitha Stadlober, AUT; Diego Zueger
SUI; Peter Barandun SUI; Stefan Schwarzbach GER; Terje Lund NOR; Ola Keul NOR; Olmo
Hernan ESP; Timothy Dattels CAN
To: NSAs
Dear fellow NSA friends,
It was good to see many of you this week in Portoroz. Over recent months, many NSAs have expressed similar concerns about the future direction of FIS.
With the upcoming elections on June 11, we wanted to share some of our thoughts regarding the current situation and the importance of the upcoming leadership decision.
All of us have had open and constructive exchanges with Federations over the past months, including during Portoroz.
Through these conversations, one thing has become increasingly clear: there is a growing sense across the FIS community that the organisation is facing significant issues which need to be addressed.
Financial Reality:
FIS is in a very serious financial situation which has deteriorated significantly over the past five years. Cash reserves have declined substantially, annual operating costs have increased significantly, and revenues have not developed as anticipated.
Despite recent presentations and appeasements.
This situation affects all of us.
In particular we believe it is essential that FIS remains in a position to continue providing meaningful distributions and support mechanisms to all NSAs – especially small and medium-sized nations – in the years ahead.
Protecting and improving the long-term financial sustainability of the organisation must therefore be a shared priority.
Only a financially stable and responsibly managed FIS will be able to safeguard existing distributions and, ideally, further strengthen support mechanisms for NSAs in the future.
Governance and Transparency:
Most recently, the FIS budget was shared with the FIS Council less than 24 hours before their meeting this week.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern that has developed over time and has caused very strong concerns about the governance of FIS.
Financial and other information shared with the NSAs and the Council has too often been incomplete or delayed, limiting the ability of elected bodies to properly fulfil their responsibilities on behalf of the membership.
We believe that stronger transparency, proper communication and governance standards in line with the FISStatutes are essential for the future of FIS.
Path Forward and Leadership:
We have repeatedly made genuine efforts to engage constructively with the current leadership in the interest of all NSAs – large, medium-sized and small alike – in the hope of contributing to positive solutions.
Unfortunately, these efforts have not resulted in an improvement of the situation.
While perspectives may differ, many of us feel that the upcoming election represents an important opportunity to strengthen trust, collaboration and long-term stability within FIS.
The positive news is that we have four highly respected new candidates for President: Vicky
Gosling, Anna Harboe Falkenberg, Alex Ospelt & Dexter Paine.
Each bring valuable qualifications, perspectives and experience to the role and share the same views about what we need to develop for OUR federation and sports.
We are fully convinced we need a change for FIS and the NSAs to have credibility and a positive future for our sports and athletes.
We sincerely appreciate the constructive discussions we have already had with many NSAs and look forward to continuing these conversations.
Based on this ongoing dialogue across the NSA community, we intend to share further thoughts and perspectives in the upcoming weeks.
Each of us are available at any time should you wish to exchange views regarding the current challenges facing FIS in addition to the opportunities ahead.
With sincere respect,
Sophie Goldschmidt – USA, Kipp Nelson – USA, Diego Zueger, SUI, Peter Barandun, SUI,
Christian Scherer – AUT, Roswitha Stadlober – AUT, Stefan Schwarzbach – GER, Terje Lund –
NOR, Ola Keul – NOR, Olmo Hernán – ESP, Tim Dattells – Chairman Alpine CAN
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