2025 and 2027 potential bidders meet in Lausanne (SUI)

Potential bidders for the organisation of the 2025 and 2027 FINA World Championships and FINA World Masters Championships met today with FINA in Lausanne (SUI) for an information meeting about the candidature process and the main topics related with the staging of the FINA showcase.

Representatives from China, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and USA (Australia is also a candidate at this stage, but their representatives could not make the trip to Switzerland), were briefed on many important matters, including the benefits and legacy of hosting a FINA World Championships, operational aspects such as the broadcast and media operations plan, accommodation and travel, marketing and sponsoring, and also the financial requirements to stage the competition.

Several external partners were also invited to the meeting in order to provide valuable insights on the positive effects and global impact of the FINA World Championships.

“This competition is definitively one of the most important and recognised sport events in the international calendar. Thanks to the number of athletes, countries participating, spectators on site and its global exposure, these Championships are on top of the world hierarchy”, underlined Ezechiel Abatan, Senior Analyst from Sportcal. 

From Great Big Events, its General Manager Luke Campbell spoke about the importance of sport presentation at the FINA top-events. “Through sport presentation, we must tell stories about FINA disciplines, it must transmit the pulse of sport. Inspiration, innovation and legacy are the pillars of a successful sport presentation plan”, he said. 

Eva Szanto, Executive Director of the 2017 Budapest FINA World Championships Organising Committee, reflected on the impact of the event in the Hungarian capital. “This event had a very positive impact on tourism and economy growth of Budapest in that year and positioned our city in the sport business world map. We also managed to create a competition where the sport experience successfully combined with a culture and gastronomic approach, for example. Positioning our venues in iconic locations was also a priority for us”, considered Eva Szanto. 

From the side of FINA Partner Myrtha Pools, Trevor Tiffany emphasised the idea of legacy in Aquatics. “We have been fortunate and honoured for being a FINA partner for so long. Providing temporary competition and training pools to organisers is of course the core of our activities with FINA, but this is not enough. We now try to re-use the pools in the local community after the Championships, so that there is a legacy related with the use of a temporary swimming pool”, he said.

Laszlo Szakadati, representing FINA Partner Omega, spoke about the long-lasting and successful association with our International Federation, starting from the initial edition of the World Championships in 1973. “We are of course primarily responsible for providing timing and result data for the event, but with today’s available technology we are constantly trying to create new ways of enhancing the Aquatics’ experience for media, spectators on site and of course TV viewers around the world”, Szakadati admitted.  

At the end of the meeting, FINA’s Executive Director Cornel Marculescu declared: “It was definitively a very positive meeting. The fact that we see around this table three out of the four last organisers of the FINA World Championships, is a proof of the attractiveness of this event and the positive benefits it brought to the respective organising cities. They want to be again with FINA. To the others, including Belgrade, in Serbia, host of the first FINA World Championships in 1973, I believe they understood today the importance and strength of our showcase; they will certainly return home with positive arguments to convince their respective national authorities”.

After this meeting, potential organisers will have until April 25, 2019 to submit their formal bid to FINA. During the month of May, FINA will visit each of the candidates and continue working with them to finalise the Host City Agreement, which must be presented to FINA by June 17, 2019. On July 11, 2019 in Gwangju (KOR), each of the bids make a presentation for the FINA Bureau, which will then decide on the hosts for the organisation of the 2025 and 2027 FINA World Championships and FINA World Masters Championships.