Dear friend of rollersports.org, back from Sportaccord I wish to share with you some considerations. Various meetings and assemblies in which we have taken part, showed very clearly the message that the IOC will send to the International Federations: the future of sport communication is in the new media and in the new dimension of social being, that they are building. In this direction, for example, the agreement closed between IOC and YouTube to create a great digital theme channel, The Sports Hub, in which we have the honour to participate.

“Digital natives”, pre-adolescents and adolescents who, as you know, are an important catchment area for us, but also the more mature thirties, are accustomed to using new technologies with the same familiarity that previous generations had with books, newspapers and television. Web is now, unquestionably, a vital tool for communication. We all are used to search on Internet videos, pictures and news, as well as communities to share interests. Sport, which by its nature acts as unifying factor, must be able to convey its strength also in the network, to recycle it back in the gyms, halls, in the skate parks and on the rinks. We must speak the language of young people to put on their feet skates and skateboards and show what roller sports are able to offer as satisfaction and personal growth.

FIRS had realized it since years and, when nobody thought it could be possible, was already studying the possible implementations of Internet: when we started with WebTV, in 2006, FIRS was the first International Federation to offer the live streaming of the major events. We were pioneers and this has led us, inevitably, basing on previous experience to look each time for new solutions. Surely you realize the incredible leap forward, with the live streaming, of the World Figure Skating Championships 2009 in Freiburg. Now that we have secured an excellent technology which enables us to meet the needs of roller-skating fans around the world, we know we must work hard to stay on the web in an appropriate way and to create a real digital television for skating.

First of all FIRS staff will develop in the coming months a restyling project of the website and of the Web Tv to improve the usability and the appeal. I ask your cooperation in this regard and getting in touch with the Communication Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), you can send video material to be published.

Our partnership with The SportsMan Group / BWIN is another sign of the new direction in which we are moving around the world and I am satisfied to have strengthened in Dubai this partnership analyzing with them the possibility to extend it to other disciplines.

We will go on using social networks, on which we are already present but we want to develop this in a more comprehensive and structured way. Facebook, for example, shows numerous pages about roller sports and we are sure that the FIRS will be able to play a unifying role in this area.

Finally, we have begun an important collaboration with the International Academy of Sports Science and Technology of IOC, with which we will develop a project for the promotion of FIRS brand, just taking into account the future developments that the web allows us.

We face months of hard work and I'm sure that , again, we will have the appreciation and the support of you all.

An affectionate sports hug

Sabatino Aracu
FIRS PRESIDENT