Gábor Gelencsér: FootGolf has power

Exclusive interview with Gábor Gelencsér, the new president of the FIFG. He talks about the plans until the next World Cup and how his board will help the countries to progress.

Footgolfer are dreaming about playing on the Olympics. FIFG is now in an observing status at GAISF, which is the first step of becoming a recognized sport. Where is FootGolf now?
We work hard for our dreams. FootGolf has power, that’s why we use the #footgolfpower from now to demonstrate this. Now we have a big opportunity in Hungary to get closer to the GAISF, because Budapest is organizing the Urban Games, where the representatives of the GAISF will be here. Of course, our main goal is to become a member of the GAISF from the observing status. To reach it, we need legal sport federations in the country members. From then we can talk about the possibility of being part of the Olympic games.

What will be your first steps as the new president?
All of us know, there are weak links in the system. We are checking the countries, what kind of background work is in progress. We need the active members to grow the sport worldwide, but on the local level mainly to reach a huge player and game fan basis. We are focusing on raising the amount of the players, because it causes problems in a few countries. If we are going to be successful in this area, it means, the standard of the national championships will be higher than now, and will not cause a problem to organize a tournament with 100 players for example. We lend the countries helping hand, business coaches are ready to measure the problem, make plans to progress.

The closing of the season is near, what are the plans for 2020?
Beside organizing the World Cup in Japan, we are going to have a stable world ranking system. We are negotiating companies running systems like we need. To progress, we want the schedule of the next year ready until the end of 2019. It is an important step, because the players can make plans for the future and the organizers must know what they can arrange, and mainly, not just in a short term. In 2020, the main event is the World Cup, so we are going to arrange the big competitions knowing the dates of the WC. We have to be careful in the future not to have bigger FIFG events on one weekend. To make the FIFG 500 and 250 tournaments more prestigious, we award the best of this competitions with the Silver and Bronze Ball as we do with the Golden Ball. We are arranging the first World Congress in 2020 and we want to hold it every year, because the leaders of the countries must meet regularly, not just during the World Cups.

You are European and have been leading the European Footgolf Grand Slam for a long time, but what are the plans for the other continental series?
Europe has a history of having series like the EFT or later the Grand Slam, where Julien Babel is helping so much to lead that. There will be Asian and Inter-American Tour also, and I hope, Africa will join soon with bigger amount of members.

What is the message of your presidency?
The etiquette and fair play in FootGolf can be attractive, so our main purpose to create values with our beloved sport. I believe in the power of footgolf. That’s why we choose the #footgolfpower to represent this.

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