Antonio Silva has been re-elected as the European Aquatics President.
Silva (Portugal) was elected for the first time at the Extraordinary Congress two years ago.
Today, the Elective Congress was held in Athens. Silva has had problems in his national federation. Still, there were no changes at the top of the continental federation for aquatic sports.
The membership of European Aquatics voted unanimously at the Elective Congress in Athens to re-elect President Antonio Silva (Portugal) and the Officers, Josip Varvodic (Croatia), First Vice President, Andida Bouma (Netherlands), Treasurer, and Noam Zwi (Israel), General Secretary, to continue with their positions until 2028“, European Aquatics announced.
The Congress also unanimously elected six Vice Presidents for the next four years and the Bureau Members for 2024-2028.
Kyriakos Giannopoulos (Greece), Christer Magnusson (Sweden), Gilles Sezionale (France), Marco Troll (Germany),Erkan Yalcin (Turkey), and the big name of water polo, Vanja Udovicic (Serbia), will be Vice Presidents until 2028. Since 2022, Udovicic, the former captain of Serbia and the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Government of Serbia (2013 – 2022), has been a World Aquatics member, representing Europe.
Photo: European Aquatics
Besides the President, Vice Presidents, General Secretary and Treasurer, the members of the European Aquatics Bureau who were elected or re-elected are: Ewen Cameron (Switzerland), Fernando Carpena (Spain), Rokur I Jakuppstovu (Faroe Islands), Pia Johansen (Sweden), Graeme Marchbank (Great Britain), Norbert Madaras ( Hungary ‘- the President of the Hungarian Water Polo Federation), Milos Mracevic (Montenegro), Arno Pajek (Austria) and Camelia Alina Potec (Romania).
“I’m very proud of the team we have built here at European Aquatics over the past two years and today’s unanimous decisions show a collective commitment to advancing aquatics sports and fostering cooperation within the European and global aquatics community. It is not a one man show but a movement that want to work hard together for the benefit of Aquatic sports in Europe and worldwide. With this renewed mandate we are now poised to embark on a new chapter of growth, innovation, and inclusivity.”, Silva said (source European Aquatics).
First Vice President Josip Varvodic said:
“It’s an honour to be elected with such a resounding endorsement. I would like to say thank you to our committee members, referees, delegates, technical officials, all my Bureau colleagues and the office staff for all their great support. I am really looking forward to more excellent collaboration in the following years.”(source: European Aquatics).
Additionally, Kyriakos Giannopoulos, Sarah Keane (Ireland), Otylia Jedzrejczak (Poland), and Josip Varvodic were elected as the representatives of Europe in the World Aquatics Bureau for the period 2025 – 2029.
For the first time, Congress elected the European Aquatics Integrity Unit, consisting of a Council and an Adjudicatory body. The elected council chair is Ashley Dominic Cox (Great Britain) and members are: Pia Zatterstrom (Sweden) and David Szanto (Hungary). The elected chair of the Adjudicatory body is Isabelle Fellrath (Switzerland) and its members are: Enric Bertran (Spain), Rok Vehovec (Slovenia), Joost Richard Berculo (Netherlands) and Amichay Weinberger (Israel)
Forty-five national federations had their delegates at the Congress (each federation has two votes). The President of World Aquatics, Captain Husain Al Musallam, and the President of the European Olympic Committees and the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos also attended the Congress.
