OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY THE WFCS PRESIDENT

Dear members of the World Federation for Company Sport, 
Dear friends, 

Following our recent letter of April 11th, on the advisability of postponing the World Company Sports Games in Athens scheduled for next June, we note that your feedback is clearly in favor of postpone the event after the summer. 

Based on your fears, your suggestions, and your requests, we had asked the Greek organizing committee for several days to work on the possibility of a plan B. 

Because even if we all hope for an improvement in the situation in the coming weeks, even if the specialists predict this improvement, strong uncertainties remain two months before the event.

These fears, the delay in vaccination in some countries, will not allow, despite the significant efforts made by our Greek friends in recent weeks to offer a safe event, to ensure a sufficiently high level of participation. 

According to your wishes and to consider the international situation, we must resolve to implement plan B. 

The success of an event of this type does not mean only to a perfect organization, it also requires a significant participation, and it is indeed on this precise point that we took into account your alerts when deciding to postpone the Games after the end of summer. 

Your feedback to our "mini survey" positions the best period for this postponement to the first week of October, so we officially inform you that the World Company Sport Games in Athens will take place from Wednesday 06th to Sunday 10th October 2021. 

The level of vaccination will be good a priori, so we invite you to inform your teams, your clubs, your companies of this postponement. We thank you for mobilizing them, for inviting them to plan training and physical preparation up to the level of safety necessary for any form of competition. 

The safety of participants and the quality of the organization remain the main points of vigilance of the WFCS Executive Committee and the local organizing committee. The experience of the last few months prompts us to be very cautious, and in accordance with the almost unanimous request, our Greek friends are already working to plan all the necessary changes in connection with the Greek national authorities in order to allow an event where pleasure will prevail. 

To allow us to make extraordinary Games, to make this choice the best choice, we thank you for being our ambassadors once again. Also, all of you, officials of WFCS member federations, club managers, company managers ... we ask you to register or register many of your colleagues, your athletes, to make these Games one of the first major events of return to normal life. 

We thank you in advance to contact the local organising committee who already decided to extend registrations until 5th September 2021.  

These Games, we want them to be magnificent, we all dream of them, we need them, we also wish them to thank our Greek friends for their efforts and to thank you all for your support and understanding. 

Didier Besseyre,

WFCS President