The
European University Sports Association (EUSA) Convention and the EUSA-International University Sports Federation (FISU) Seminar 2024 were successfully held in Salerno, Italy. Both events, which were held simultaneously for the first time, gathered more than 100 people.
The participants in both events included
EUSA and FISU representatives, members of the EUSA Technical Commission, future Organising Committees of the upcoming European Universities Championships 2025 and other delegates.
On the 11th of October, the programme moved to the University of Salerno, where the participants were welcomed by Maurizio Sibilio, Vice-Rector of the University of Salerno and Fulvio Bonavitacola, Vice-President of the Campania Region.
Lorenzo Lentini, President of CUS Salerno, stressed the importance of hosting these two events, as well as the upcoming EUSA and FISU Games. Matjaz Pecovnik, EUSA Secretary General, also brought greetings and highlighted the work with EUSA sports events.
The official programme began with a series of presentations giving an insight into different parts of the ‘Guidelines for Successful Organisation’ of the
EUSA European Universities Championships, introduced by Liam Smith, EUSA Events Manager. These included:
- Miha Zvan, EUSA Sports Manager, presenting important information and documents related to the future European Universities Championships 2025.
- Eszter Gulyas, EUSA Sports Coordinator, on the planning process of the European University Championships (EUCs), including the importance of progress reports and inspection visits in the planning of the 2025 EUCs.
- Salvatore Sisca, EUSA Head of Media and Communications, on the importance of consistency and cooperation in building a better and stronger visual identity and communication process.
- Hristina Hristova, EUSA Communications Officer, on the importance of volunteers and volunteer management in the organisation and delivery of sports events.
- A brief overview of the ‘Results Management and Live Streaming’ system was given by Liam Smith, who gave an insight into how it works and supports event operations.
- Aleksandra Andreeva, EUSA Sports Administrator, presented the registration process and accreditation system, including registration deadlines and the steps in the process.
- Sara Rozman, EUSA Education and Development Manager, provided useful insights into protocol and hospitality.
Best practices from the 2023 European Universities Championships (EUC) season were also presented. Pablo Martinez, EUSA Technical Delegate for Volleyball, spoke about last year’s Volleyball EUC in Braga, Portugal, and Jordi Mercade Torres presented the Tennis EUC, which took place in Granada, Spain, in 2023.
The final day continued with presentations from the organising committees of the upcoming 2025 European Universities Championships. In a subsequent session,
EUSA Projects and Policy Manager Andrej Pisl presented on EU Funding of University Sports Events and Projects.
Stefan Bergh, Chair of the FISU Committee for the Development of University Sport and President of ENGSO, opened the session with a video greeting. Case studies of the Erasmus+ Sport Cooperation partnership DiscoverU and the Erasmus+ Youth and Youth Worker Exchange were also outlined.
The next part focused on the future of the FISU and EUSA Games, moderated by Sara Rozman. Tarmo Jaakson, FISU Development and NUSF Relations Manager, presented the Torino 2025 FISU World University Games Winter and Joerg Foerster, President of the German University Sports Federation (ADH), spoke about the Rhein Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games Summer.