Last month, the British Ski Federation, which nominated Eliasch when he was elected chairman five years ago, announced that they no longer support him and instead nominate Victoria Gosling, the operations manager of the British Ski Federation. FIS statutes say that individuals can only be nominated by a federation from a country where they have a passport, creating complications for Eliasch, who was born in Sweden and has long been a citizen of the United Kingdom. To remain chairman, the billionaire needs to get a passport from the nation that wants to nominate him.
Eliasch has been a controversial chairman, advocating for Russia to be readmitted to the international stage and being in open conflict with several major ski nations over how commercial rights to competitions should be sold. According to SVT Sport, Johan Eliasch hoped that he would instead be nominated by Sweden, and sources have told SVT Sport that the Swedish Ski Federation, which has previously been in open conflict with Eliasch on several issues, has nonetheless considered nominating him. However, several independent sources state that the sitting FIS board member Karin Mattsson is nominated for a board position again, which means that Eliasch is rejected by Sweden. The Swedish Ski Federation's chairman Maria Krafft Helgesson does not want to comment on SVT's information and states that they will announce their decision on April 23, the day after FIS officially presents the nominated candidates.
So we adhere to the guidelines that FIS has and we do it the right way.
The Swedish and British decisions do not necessarily mean that Eliasch loses his position as chairman. At the FIS congress on June 10-11 in Belgrade, a chairman for the next two years will be elected.