DEAR FRIENDS
OF EUROPEAN
UNIVERSITY SPORTS,
What a pleasure it is to be able to congrat-
ulate EUSA on its 20th anniversary! Truly,
this is an auspicious year for university
sport, with FISU celebrating its 70th an-
niversary and the Universiade celebrating
its own 60th anniversary. And how fitting
for us that these celebrations should take
place on the continent where our move-
ment was created. Do please consider
these sincere congratulations, not only
to be on behalf of FISU, but also on my
personal behalf. Having had the privilege
to serve as EUSA’s Vice-President for
more than half of the Association’s exist-
ence, you can only imagine how close the
organisation is to my heart.
And what a productive period the last 20
years has been! With four editions of the
European Universities Games already
behind us, it is now hard to imagine the
university sport calendar without them.
EUSA has proven to be the right organisa-
tion for the right time. There are nearly 20
million young people taking part in tertiary
education across Europe. During EUSA’s
founding in 1999, the percentage of young
people who experienced tertiary education
of some kind was lower than 40 percent.
Now, it is above 60 percent.
Across the same period, we have seen a
steady societal shift towards sedentary
lifestyles. An erosion in physical educa-
tion at school level means that fewer
and fewer young people are reaching the
age of 18 with healthy habits of regular
sporting participation. So if we consider
the overall mission of university sports to
be that of ensuring the leaders of tomor-
row are positively influenced by their
experiences of international university
sport, then it is more than reasonable to
claim that EUSA’s work has never been
more important or more relevant.Despite the challenges we face together,
the potential benefits of our work have
also never been clearer. After all, the
leader of the whole Olympic Movement
is none other than an exemplary former
athlete, whose own sports career was
marked by early successes in interna-
tional university sports competition! The
idea that together we can help shape
more leaders like International Olympic
Committee President, Dr Thomas Bach, is
powerful motivation indeed.Within an individual family, it has been re-
peatedly shown that children of physically
active parents are more likely to be active
themselves, and to enjoy the benefits that
activity brings. The same is true of our
wider European family. Europe’s member
states and European institutions have
public policy frameworks that depend on
us ensuring there is a steady supply of
leaders who have made sport and even
international competition a big part of
their own lives. This has always been the
promise of our work: we know that by
shaping the lives of university students,
we have the opportunity to shape all of
the lives that those students will touch.EUSA has consistently helped shape its
own members, too, sharing best practice.
And as an outward-looking organisa-
tion, EUSA’s influence has also been felt
around the world. A great example of this
is the way EUSA has been willing and ableto share its innovations and the lessons
of its successes with other continental
university sports federations and with
their national members. For this, FISU is
very grateful.The model of inter-university competition,
where athletes represent their universities
in international competition rather than
their countries, has proven itself to be a
great step forward. At a time when univer-
sities compete with each other like never
before, for students, for research grants,
for brand recognition, it is no surprise that
they should be more willing to support
students competing in their colours, rather
than the colours of the relevant national
flags. It is an innovation we have embraced
at FISU, first with 3x3 Basketball and also
now with the FISU University World Cup –
Football, debuting this year in China.Ensuring EUSA’s next two decades are as
successful as the last two will be no easy
matter. But the very health of European
society depends on the European univer-
sity sports movement not only replicating
past wins but on achieving new ones, in
terms of healthy campuses and wider
sporting participation. For this, I am very
happy to offer FISU’s complete support.
Congratulations on 20 years of success,
and on having positively shaped the lives
of millions of young Europeans! Please ac-
cept FISU’s very best wishes for 20 more!Oleg Matytsin
FISU President