Gianni Merlo re-elected as AIPS President for sixth and final term in landslide victory

Italy’s Gianni Merlo will continue in his role as President of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) for another four years after achieving a landslide victory over his Hungarian counterpart Zsuzsa Csisztu on 12 April, during the 88th AIPS Congress at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Merlo secured a commanding 83 votes (76.85%) out of the 108 valid votes cast to renew his mandate for a sixth and final term. Csisztu from Hungary got 25 votes (23.15%). The only other time Merlo had an opponent in the presidential election was in 2005, when he was first elected.

CONTINUITY “I think the people have decided to continue, because the programme that I proposed is one that is looking to the future and will also help prepare the younger generations,” Merlo said.

Kenya’s Evelyn Watta beat Ioannis Daras from Greece to the 1st Vice President position with an even bigger margin. The Kenyan took a whooping 99 votes (90%) out of the 110 valid votes, leaving Daras with just 11 (10%). The incumbent Esat Yilmaer from Turkey dropped out of the race prior to the election.

Manuel Queiroz from Portugal was elected as the new treasurer by acclamation following the withdrawal of his opponents.

In the election for the four Vice President positions, China’s Gao Chao led the way with 83.64% of the votes. He was followed by Ernesto Ortiz Gomez from Uruguay, Michal Dusik from Czechia and Estonia’s Maarja Värv.

EC MEMBERS And out of the 24 that were vying to be EC members, the following 12 were elected: Hiroki Shoda (Japan); Adel Alzahrani (Saudi Arabia); Morad Moutaouakkil (Morocco); Rudy Nuyens (Belgium); Predrag Milinkovic (Serbia); Jura Ozmec (Croatia); Jože Zidar (Slovenia); Ahmed Al-Kaabi (Oman); Sabanayakan Selvakumaraswamy (India); Catalin Tepelin (Romania); Fernando Nürnberg Zambrana (Bolivia); Josef Langer (Austria).

The voting members agreed that after the AIPS Secretary General has been appointed, Mohamed Ould El Hassan (Mauritania), who finished 13th in Sunday’s race, will be automatically appointed to the Executive Committee.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE “The plan is to improve on what we’ve done until now because our association must evolve every year,” said Merlo. “There is new media and many other things and it is important for us to have working groups to study the issues affecting our profession nowadays. We cannot stop now because the situation around the world is changing so quickly so we must begin to think ahead immediately. We must be in contact with the people that have a real vision of what will happen in the future to be ready.

“In this case I will be a coach of a new team where we will find who will be the new striker. And I think that the team is very good and we can do a lot. It depends on the will of everybody. My first duty is to bring them together to play in the proper way with a good strategy on the field. Let’s see because from tomorrow we will begin the first meeting.”

PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMIT Earlier in the day, the Congress had voted in favour of a presidential term limit of a maximum of 12 years but this amendment is to take effect from the next period. In another major decision taken on Sunday, members of the Executive Committee “must be no older than 75 years on January 1 of the year in which the election takes place.”

HONORARY MEMBERS At the end of the Congress five members of the outgoing EC were recognised as Honorary Members. Esat Yilmaer (Türkiye), Charles Camenzuli (Malta), Vicente Dattoli (Brazil), Hiroshi Takeuchi (Japan) and Amjad Mallik (Pakistan).
ELECTED AIPS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR THE 2026 – 2030

PRESIDENT

Gianni Merlo (Italy)

1st VICE PRESIDENT

Evelyn Watta (Kenya)

TREASURER

Manuel Queiroz (Portugal)

VICE PRESIDENT

Gao Chao (China)

Ernesto Ortiz Gomez (Uruguay)

Michal Dusik (Czechia)

Maarja Värv (Estonia)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS