Sports Journalists from all over Africa will meet in
Senegal this week for an event aimed at creating a new beginning for The
African section of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) also known
as AIPS Africa.
They will be holding an extraordinary meeting of the continental body in Dakar, Senegal, on 21 and 22 February 2013.
The event will be hosted by the Senegalese Sports Journalist Association. Delegates from all African associations of sports journalists will attend, as well as all members of AIPS Executive Committee and AIPS Africa Executive Committee.
The conference will be chaired by the President of the AIPS, a renowned Italian sports journalist, Gianni Merlo.
AIPS Africa has long been mooted and plagued by leadership crisis ever since its elected Moroccan president Belaid Bouimid took over.
Belaid was not present at the last two executive committee meetings and AIPS did not even receive a report from the African section president in Baku, the venue of the last AIPS EC meeting.
During the last AIPS Congress held in Innsbruck, Austria, president Gianni Merlo gave powers for a new interim committee to be placed in order to revive the body, having tried to find a democratic way to solve the problems without results.
“The interim committee that we elected during the AIPS Congress in Innsbruck last January 2012 had the mandate to convene an AIPS Africa Congress before the next AIPS Congress in Sochi this year,” he said.
No elections will be held until the Sochi congress in April, but a review of the statutes will be discussed.
The Sports Journalists Association of The Gambia will be represented at the Dakar meeting by auditor Momodou Faal and secretary general Abdoulie Bah, who is also an International Sports Press Association young reporter.