World body tells Indian equestrian body to settle dues, calls for elections

New Delhi: Coming down hard on the Indian equestrian federation for its unprofessional ways and non-payment to foreign coaches, the sport’s global governing body – FEI – on Monday decided against granting the country solidarity projects for the development of the game and advised all its officials planning to travel to India for international events to refuse officiating in competitions without prior payment of their expenses by the EFI.
The Lausanne-based Fédération Equestre Internationale’s (FEI) harsh decision came after it found that the coaches hired to train the Indian equestrian athletes for the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, as well as FEI officials, weren’t paid their outstanding dues by the EFI.
The FEI also directed the Indian body to conduct its elections for the new executive committee (EC) at the earliest. In a letter to EFI’s acting president, Colonel Jagat Singh, FEI’s Director Governance and Institutional Affairs, Francisco Lima, wrote: “Given the leadership situation of India national federation as well as latest development concerning the organisation of international events and FEI courses in India, the FEI Board has decided that 1) not to allocate FEI solidarity projects, 2) not to allocate FEI courses and 3) advise all officials planning to travel to India for international events to refuse without prior payment of their expenses by India national federation (NF)."
The FEI also expressed its unhappiness over the last-minute cancellation of the Biosecurity course on Oct 12-13, 2024 by the EFI, invoicing the Indian body the per diem for a total of 1600 euros to be paid to course director Professor Anne Courouce.
EFI, on its part issued a rebuttal and stated that there were no unsettled payments and the world body erred by issuing such a communication. “The EFI would like to put on record that all the dues were cleared by it by Nov 20 and an official communication was made to FEI official Catrin Norinder who had acknowledged the receipt of the same. The EFI was taken by surprise when such a communication landed in its inbox from Francisco Lima and a detailed letter to the same was being issued today. We have written back to the FEI that there is a mistake on their part which needs correction. It has now come to light that the person who wrote today's mail was on leave and was not aware that EFI had settled all the dues,” an EFI statement said.
Earlier this year, the foreign coach of the Indian eventing team, Rodolphe Scherer, had shot off a letter to EFI’s secretary general, Colonel Jaiveer Sing, demanding the payment of their coaching fee for training the team for the Hangzhou Asiad. “Christian Plage, Dressage coach,12,500 euros, Karl Schneider, Jumping coach, 22,500 euros and Rodolphe Scherer, Eventing coach, 14,000 euros haven't been paid for almost a year. It would be desirable to be able to settle this debt quickly so that it does not harm the Indian federation's relations with the various international equestrian actors," Scherer stated.