ESF President Gabriel Waage wrote a letter to the National Federations about COVID-19.


March 4, 2020

Dear friends,

I would like to address from the perspective of the ESF pertaining to the coronavirus, and respectively to ESF competitions 2020.

As we have seen the situation has become very serious and it seems we are facing global situation. The situation in the world is not ideal as is in some parts of Europe, with the worst being in Northern Italy, where we will have our first competition of the year, the Women’s European Championship.

Our Secretary General Ami Baran including his colleague in CEB Kruno Karin are monitoring the situation on a daily basis. I am personally in close contact with FIBS President Andrea Marcon, who is in constant contact with the Italian government and CONI. Andrea is on top of the situation and I trust his judgement and perspective of the situation.

I am personally in contact with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and receiving daily updated information, which is surely coordinated information over all of the European Union.

Rest assured that we are receiving advice from political and health organizations and we will continue and follow their instructions. Our first event, the WECh, is 3 months away and anything can happen. In accordance with the notice from FIBS President Marcon, we are continuing as planned. As of now we are not preparing any alternatives. Of course we need to have a specific timeline pertaining to our events, however, until we have a mandatory decision from government representatives or International Health Organizations we are keeping all events as planned. Our ESF Board Meeting is planned for April 18th, where we will be able to make some decisions.

I WOULD LIKE CONFIRM THAT IN CASE OF CANCELLATION OF AN ESF TOURNAMENT THE PAID ENTRY FEES FOR PARTICIPATION WILL BE REFUNDED OR KEPT FOR FUTURE TOURNAMENTS.

I am also in contact with other sports organizations who have stated they are continuing as planned and if the situation becomes truly serious enough, then they might have to cancel events, which is also an alternative.

I strongly believe and hope that we will play all our events as planned.
Best regards,

Gabriel Waage