The world of skiing is in turmoil, an unprecedented power struggle between the International Ski Federation (FIS), the global body that regulates competitive skiing, and national federations, including the influential German Ski Federation (DSV). The FIS, led by its president Johan Eliasch, is proposing ground-breaking changes that could revolutionise winter competition, while some more conservative federations are reluctant.

Many national federations, including the German and some from Central Europe and Scandinavia, are forming a kind of bloc with common interests to put pressure on the governing body and get their way. DSV Sports Director Wolfgang Maier has some advice for his FIS counterpart. "We have to be firm and show the FIS president where his limits are," he told BR24Sport a few days ago.

What's the underlying conflict?

Opposing visions. While Eliasch believes it is necessary to organise competitions along the lines of tennis or Formula 1, with significant prize money and a series of global races or competitions aimed at markets outside the traditional ones, including America and Asia.

The dissenting nations propose another alternative, the creation of an independent "super league" of skiing outside the FIS. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Italy would be the main federations involved, with Slovenia and Finland also joining. This union of federations is significant as these nations together account for around 65% of the discipline's World Cup events.

Ultimately, the dispute is about the money distributed for the broadcasting rights of Alpine skiing, which the FIS wants to control by changing the competitions, but which the federations do not want to allow. The current format is that the organiser takes the economic benefit.  The idea of the FIS is to monopolise everything and then share it, as happens in other competitions. The centralisation wouldn't be the main problem, but the economic division.

As the owner of the World Cup rights, the FIS has the last word, but not when it comes to the creation of an independent league by the aforementioned nations. The FIS president is refusing to give in and is doing all he can to rally support for what he sees as a revolutionary idea. In fact, it was this proposal that helped him win the presidency in 2021. 

The opposition is threatening to create a league that could fatally wound both the current format and the proposed new one. Time will tell who wins the showdown.

In an attempt to prevent this uncertain panorama from spreading and causing significant damage, a mediation attempt between the national federations and the FIS took place in Zurich, Switzerland, with no very positive results beyond what Schwarzbach described as "constructive talks in a reasonable atmosphere".

In a belligerent tone, ÖSV Secretary General Christian Scherer threatened that "we will have to think about alternative concepts" - the Super League, to be precise.

The dissenting federations know that they have a lot of firepower, as the creation of a league separate from the one organised by the FIS could mean millions in losses for the FIS and, above all, for the hosts of the World Cups, due to the weight of the countries that could stop participating.

Eliasch is trying to resist the onslaught because he knows that if he loses this dispute, his power in the future will be severely limited, even though he has been re-elected to the post in 2022.