IAAF President Dr Primo Nebiolo, acting also in his capacity of President of the ASOIF, today met in Zurich with the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter.
During the meeting, the two Presidents confirmed their intention of further reinforcing the longstanding association that has always symbolised relations between these two major international sporting bodies, in the respect of their reciprocal independence and autonomy. This was held to be of paramount importance in this particularly difficult time for the Olympic movement, where both of the federations consider it essential to present a common front.
Both the IAAF and FIFA presidents agreed that it would be useful to experiment in the future with new activities that associated football and athletics, with the aim of contributing to the development of the international sports movement.
One of the first such occasions could be on the 5 May, when the Olympic stadium in Seville will be inaugurated with a number of athletics events taking place during the half-time break of the soccer match between Spain and Croatia. The beautiful new Olympic stadium in Seville has been specially built, in less than two years, to host, from 20-29 August this year, the 7th IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
Mr Blatter confirmed to Dr Nebiolo that he would attend the 20th General Assembly of the ASOIF, which will take place in Lausanne on 19-20 March and which will also include a joint meeting with the Executive Commission of the IOC.
IAAF