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| The idea of fighting against chauvinism and sport-related violence came into being in 1963 at the Seminar held at the UNESCO Youth Institute in Gauting, near Munich, Germany which was attended by sports officials belonging to the ICSPE (International Committee for Sport and Physical Education) and journalists affiliated with the AIPS (International Sports Press Association). On 5 December, 1963, again at the Cercle Interallié in Paris, the constituent meeting of the provisional International Committee for the Organisation of the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Awards was held. Representatives of UNESCO, Al PS, ICSPE and the International Federations for Basketball, Football, Rugby and Wrestling elected a provisional Bureau comprising: President: Jean Borotra (France), ICSPE; Vice-presidents: Sir Stanley Rous (Great-Britain), FIFA and William Jones (Great-Britain), FIBA; Secretary General: Jacques Ferran. At its meeting of 29 January 1965, the International Committee for the Organization of the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophys awarded its inaugural Trophy - for the preceding year 1964 - to Italian Bobsleigh competitor Eugenio Monti. In deference to with the wish expressed by the AIPS, the Committee abstained from awarding a Trophy to the most sportsmanlike public, but nonetheless decided not to give up this project. Most of the candidacies for the Trophies were in the early days filed by the AIPS. But in 1968 the Committee received with satisfaction the first candidacies put forward by National Olympic Committees. In 1970, Mr Pierre Comte-Offenbach, for several years one of the leading officials of the French Fair Play Committee, was entrusted with the office of Secretary General of the International Committee. However, Ms. Liliane Meunier, Deputy Secretary General of the ICSPE, administratively ran the Committee. In 1973, a brochure entitled "Fair Play" was drafted by René Bazennerye, Jean Borotra, Pierre Comte-Offenbach, Jacques Ferran and Georges Guillermin, members of the French Committee for Fair Play. Its aim was on the one hand to enhance the awareness of the French public, on the other to promote the creation of national committees in other countries. In its meeting of May 29, 1973, the Committee changed its name to International Committee for Fair Play (C.I.F.P.), and further decided that the Trophies would be continued under the same name, the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophies.. In 1974, the Director General of Unesco Mr René Maheu and the President of the International Olympic Committee Lord Killanin accepted the invitation to become Honorary CIFP Presidents. During the CIFP meeting held on April 8, 1975 in Paris, Mr Willi Daume (Federal Republic of Germany), then President of the NOC and Vice- president of the IOC, was elected Vice-president of the CIFP. The Declaration was published in English, French and Spanish. It was later translated into a number of other languages, including German, Portuguese, Indonesian, Arabic and Polish. In 1976, the CIFP - then a non-corporate body - decided its institutionalization and applied for a 'B' Consultative Status with UNESCO as an International Non-Governmental Organization (the CIFP was granted the 'B' Status in 1978). The First General Assembly held on March 3rd, 1977 at UNESCO House in Paris voted the CIFP Statutes and elected the Board of Directors: President: Jean Borotra (France), ICSPE Vice-president; Vice-president: Willi Daume (FRG), president of the National Olympic Committee, member of the IOC Tripartite Commission; Secretary General: Janusz Piewcewicz (Poland), Deputy Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee; Treasurer: Ms Liliane Meunier (France), Deputy Secretary General of the ICSPE; Members: Jacques Ferran (France), Chairman of the AIPS Football Commission, interim president of the International Association Against Violence in Sport (AICVS); Pierre Ferri (France), President of the International Fencing Federation. The General Assembly authorized the Board of Directors to fill vacant seats, subject to confirmation by the next Assembly. In June 1977, the CIFP decided to award "Letters of Congratulation" as well to individuals who have distinguished themselves by exemplary humanitarian acts, even though such actions do not fully meet the criteria of "Fair Play Gestures" which the CIFP intends to commend. In September of the same year, CIFP Vice-president Willi Daume offered the Committee the Medal designed by French sculptor Jean Ipoustéguy, which from then on has served as the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy. Its commissioning was covered by the prize Mr Daume had been awarded for having successfully associated Culture and Sport at the Munich Olympic Games, for which he was president of the Organizing Committee. On the occasion of the Olympic Congress held the same year in Baden-Baden (FRG), the CIFP staged an exhibition and published a pamphlet to present its activities. In April 1982, the Secretariat of the CIFP was transferred from Warsaw to Paris acting on a decision by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) to put Mr Janusz Piewcewicz (CIFP Secretary General) in charge of their administration. On the 16-17 November 1982, the CIFP took part in the Seminar of the International Alliance for Sport without Violence and for Fair Play, a consultation structure bringing together the International Association Against Violence in Sport (AICVS), the Rika de Backer-Van Ocken International Foundation Against Violence in Sport, and the CIFP. In the Seminar's final motion, the Alliance addressed sports leaders, public authorities and the mass media, suggesting concrete measures to curb violence and promote fair play. In 1983, the sessions of the International Olympic Academy (IOA) focused on ways of fighting against violence and promoting fair play. CIFP president Jean Borotra and CIFP members Ms. Monique Berlioux, Messrs. Jenö Kamuti, Mohamed Mzali and John Powell delivered lectures at the 23rd IOA session, while Janusz Piewcewicz and John Powell expressed their views at the 4th Special Session of the IOA reserved for NOC and IF members and officials. On 20-21 October 1987 in Lausanne the CIFP took part in the Consultation Days for Sports Ethics organized by the Alliance at Olympic House upon the invitation of the President of the IOC. As a conclusion to the meeting, a set of motions brought forward by Mr Jacques Ferran was carried, whose aim was to step up and broaden actions in favour of sports values and against all forms of deviation therefrom, e.g. violence, doping, improper commercialisation. In its meeting of May 27, 1988 the CIFP Board of Directors decided that in conferring awards for careers, it would no longer be a criterion that the sports career under review has ended. In fact, in certain disciplines such as tennis or equestrian events for instance, it is difficult to establish when a career has actually come to an end. For that reason, awards were henceforth awarded for a general attitude of fair play during a sports career. On 3 November 1988, during the Extraordinary General Assembly and upon Jean Borotra's invitation, Mr Willi Daume, CIFP Vice-president since 1975, President of the NOC of Germany and IOC Member, was elected President of the CIFP. The Assembly conferred on Mr Jean Borotra the title of "Honorary President and Founder". During the International Trophies awards ceremony that followed the Assembly, the stele bearing the fair play 'symbol' designed by sculptor Jean Ipoustéguy was unveiled. The stele, offered to Jean Borotra by President Willi Daume and the CIFP, was later transferred to Pouy, near Biarritz (in the Basque Country) to be erected on Jean Borotra's estate and officially inaugurated on 2nd September 1989 in the presence of local authorities and members of the CIFP Bureau. In 1992 the "Fair Play For All" brochure, drafted by Prof. Norbert Müller (Germany), Albert Buisman (Netherlands), Erwin Hahn (Germany) and William Slater (Great-Britain) was published in four languages - English, French, German, Spanish. While the previous Declaration dealt mainly with competitive sports, the new Declaration appearing as the foreword the brochure extended the field of application of fair play to Sport for youth, Mass sport, Leisure sport, Health sport and Sport for the disabled, offering recommendations in each case. On the pressing issue of doping in top-level sport, the CIFP called, through this Declaration, for stepping up measures in order to protect the athletes from excessive demands in training and competition. In the philosophy of fair play, increased sports performance should not be strived for if it cannot be achieved without resorting to doping. The brochure was circulated to a large number of sports officials all over the world, particularly taking the occasion of the Olympic Scientific Congress in Malaga in July 1992, the Olympic Games of Barcelona, and the ANOC General Assembly held the same year in Acapulco. Answering the wish expressed by many national fair play committees, the CIFP also produced a selection of some 150 fair play gestures distinguished by the Committee since its creation, as an illustration of the fair play ideal. The "Members' Notebook" initiated in 1991, with the aim of informing on the fair play activities launched in the various countries, began to appear on a more regular basis. These efforts undertaken by the CIFP to improve communication began visibly bearing fruit, for the press in various countries (including non sports-oriented titles) gave the Committee's activity increased attention, and its action was even praised by such a staid economic daily such as the Wall Street Journal (2-VI-1992). In May 1993, President Willi Daume was invited to deliver a lecture on fair play at the World Symposium on Physical Fitness in Peking. In October of the same year, Mr Antonio Spallino represented the CIFP at the International Sports Law Congress in Olympia. The CIFP General Assembly held on November 9, 1993 approved new Statutes comprising in-depth amendments as well as a new logotype with a view to giving the fair play movement an easily-recognizable symbol in the general public's eye in the increasing number of countries committed to its promotion. In May 1994, CIFP Secretary General Janusz Piewcewicz attended the Constituent Assembly of the European Movement for Fair Play (EMFP) which comprised participation from representatives from 14 UEFA countries as well as CIFP Board of Directors members Joseph Blatter and Jean Presset. Frits members Joseph Blatter and Jean Presset. Fritz Wijk, elected EFPM President, joined the CIFP Board of Directors. On 17 July 1994, Jean Borotra, Founder and president of Honour of the CIFP passed away at the age of 95, after a short illness. He was buried in his native Basque Country. CIFP members Fékrou Kidane, Raoul Mollet, Nelson Paillou and Janusz Piewcewicz, commissioned by their Olympic organizations, took part in the Preparation Group of the Centennial Olympic Congress, Congress of Unity, held from 29 August to 3 September 1994 in Paris. President Willi Daume took the floor on behalf of the CIFP to stress the essential role of fair play for the future of sport. Many other speekers, among them CIFP Administration Council members Mohamed Mzali and A.de O.Sales emphasized the importance of fair play. Finally, the fundamental value of fair play was underlined twice in the "Final Document" of the Congress As the year 1994 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of the Committee, it was decided to decentralize the CIFP awards ceremony which until then was staged yearly at the UNESCO House in Paris. The ceremony to honour the 1993 laureates took place at the Opera House in Stuttgart at the Mayor's invitation. The Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophies were awarded to the Norwegian People (for their outstanding sportsmanship on the occasion of the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer) represented by King Harald V, and to the International Football Federation represented by its President Joao Havelange. In his address, Grand-Duke Jean of Luxembourg, as Senior IOC Member, pointed out that "the Norwegian people gave a lesson to the entire world: millions around the globe were able to see how remarkable the Norwegian public was by its sportsmanship, acclaiming athletes of all nations with equal enthusiasm. The Norwegian spectators appreciated in a spirit of fairness the merits of all sportsmen, even the most unfortunate" and "the Mayor of Lillehammer dedicated his efforts to illustrate one of the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter according to which a better world should be built by educating youth in a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play". For his part, FIFA Secretary General Joseph Blatter invited the young public in attendance to each become "an ambassador of fair play". The "Olympic Review" published in its June/July 1995 issue a dossier on fair play and sport-related violence, quoting in its near entirety the "Declaration on Fair Play" (see p.2) and giving the views of CIFP members Fékrou Kidane, Cabinet Leader of the President and Director of International Cooperation of the IOC, CIFP Secretary General Janusz Piewcewicz, AICVS President Jacques Ferran, as well as to International Football Referee Michel Vautrot. The same year, Panathlon International published with the CIFP's support a compilation of all the laureates of a CIFP Trophy or Honorary Diploma from 1964 to 1994 featuring the description of the merits that earned them the distinction. In September 1995, the European Fair Play Movement, meeting in Istanbul adopted at a seminar organized by the NOC in co-operation with AIPS a "Declaration on Fair Play to Members of the Sports Media", calling upon the journalists to make the general public more aware of the value of fair play. In November 1995, Liliane Meunier, Janusz Piewcewicz and Robert Pringarbe attended the various sessions of the 28th UNESCO General Conference held in Paris. Addressing the Commission of Social and Human Sciences, Mr Piewcewicz thanked Unesco for its support to CIFP activities. He stressed that by rewarding over a 30-year period more than 350 examples of commendable behaviour among members of the sports movement, the CIFP had contributed to Unesco's recent campaign to increase awareness of the ethical dimension of sport. The CIFP awards ceremony for the 1994 laureates was held on 10 December 1995 at the Foro Italico in Rome, at the headquarters of the Italian National Olympic Committee, upon the invitation of Panathlon International and the Italian National Committee for Fair Play. |
All rights withheld. International
Fair Play Committee |
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