World swim body re-elects president for 8 years, agrees to government-backed move to Hungary

Swimming officials gave World Aquatics president Husain al-Musallam an eight-year mandate on Tuesday to lead them and backed his plan to move the organisation’s headquarters to Hungary, where the government has offered a 15-year rent-free deal and legal protection.

The election on the sidelines of the world championships in Japan resets al-Musallam’s presidential term in reforms enacted after he was first elected unopposed two years ago. The reforms allow for two terms — the first for eight years and a second for four years.

The Kuwaiti official now can be in office through 2031, taking in the Paris Olympics next year and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with the possibility then to seek a final four-year term ending in 12 years’ time.

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World Aquatics plans to move from the Olympic capital of Lausanne, Switzerland — which has been its home for 37 years — to the Hungarian capital before the swim world returns to Budapest in 2027.

Minutes after being re-elected Tuesday, al-Musallam got overwhelming support from member federations to advance a working agreement announced in May with the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The proposed headquarters near the Danube Arena — which hosted the worlds in 2017 and 2022, and is scheduled to do so again in 2027 — includes pools and training facilities for international athletes in swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming.

Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó promised swim officials Tuesday they would have the headquarters site “free of charge for 15 years.”

“We are ready to provide you with tax benefits,” Szijjártó said. “And we provide immunity for all your official activities and official documentation.”

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Moving from Lausanne would save millions each year and let the governing body double its staff numbers in Budapest plus invest more in athletes, al-Musallam told his voters.

“World Aquatics will not spend money on this headquarters. So you don’t have to worry about the financials,” he said.

Al-Musallam has now been elected unopposed three times by national swimming federations — first as senior vice-president and twice as president — since April 2017 when he was implicated in United States federal court documents in the guilty plea of a soccer official from Guam who admitted taking bribes. Al-Musallam consistently denied wrongdoing and was not indicted.

Three weeks ago, he lost an election to be president of the Olympic Council of Asia in a 24-20 vote to a fellow Kuwaiti, Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah, the brother of his longtime mentor in Asian sports politics, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah.