LAUSANNE, November 26, 2020 – It has been officially confirmed at the last Executive Committee meeting, held on November 25: the AIPS 2021 Congress will be postponed to the first half of March 2022 in Italy.
 
UNANIMOUS DECISION In October, AIPS called online meetings with all the National Associations and on that occasion they agreed to leave the task of deciding on the date for the 84th AIPS Congress, which will elect the new leadership, to the Executive Committee. Given the complexity of the situation for travel and movement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was predicted that the annual AIPS gathering of 2021 would have been somehow redesigned: the option to hold it virtually was discarded due to the fact that it is an elective congress. The Executive Committee decided to postpone it to March 2022 to give every national association the opportunity to travel to the congress.

AIPS SPORT MEDIA AWARDS 2020 The Executive Committee meeting has also confirmed that the ceremony of AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020 will be held online at the beginning of March 2021. In these weeks, the AIPS Executive Committee has been heavily involved in the evaluation of the 1871 submissions received from 129 countries. After the shortlist, it will then be the turn of the AIPS Sport Media Awards Jury to decide on the three finalists in each of the eight categories at the end of January 2021.

VIRTUAL CONVENTION Thanks to modern technology, over this complicated year, AIPS managed to meet virtually with its national associations on several occasions, and also have regular EC meetings via Zoom platform: starting from the AIPS e-College in April 2020 to the AIPS seminar ‘The Cost of Reporting While Female’, AIPS World e-Conference on July 2, AIPS seminar ‘Let’s talk about Champions League’ and AIPS Conference ‘Racism and Discrimination in sport’ last September.

“It was fundamental for us to be together with our members in these hard times,” said AIPS President Gianni Merlo. “Thanks to technology we have met with National Association President several times over the year, having the chance to exchange ideas, understand better the situation in each region and find positive solutions. As we did on July 2 on the occasion of the World Sport Journalists Day, it’s possible to organize a kind of virtual convention at the opening of the AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020 in March: we are working to study the best solution to be together once again, waiting to meet physically in 2022.”