President of Slovenia Grants Honorary Patronage to 27th TAFISA World Congress 2021

On July 2nd, President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor welcomed a delegation with representatives from the Olympic Committee of Slovenia - Association of Sports Federations (NOC-ASF), Sport Union of Slovenia (ŠUS) and TAFISA in Portorož, Slovenia, which will host the 27th TAFISA World Congress in October 2021. The President of the Republic handed over the Charter of Honorary patronage to the TAFISA World Congress 2021 and accepted chairmanship of the Honorary Committee.

The reception was attended by Janez Sodržnik, MSc, First Vice President of the NOC-ASF Slovenia and TAFISA Board Member, Dejan Crnek, President of ŠUS, Patrik Peroša, MSc, Vice President of ŠUS, Peter Barendse, Vice-President of TAFISA and Chairman of TAFISA Europe, and Wolfgang Baumann, Secretary General of TAFISA.

Wolfgang Baumann thanked the President of the Republic for his support and introduced TAFISA's mission and plans of joint activities leading to 2021, when Slovenia will become the world capital of Sport for All during the TAFISA World Congress. The European Week of Sports in Slovenia in September 2019 and the Slovenian Congress of Sport for All in November 2019 will pave the way for the Congress. The participants agreed that physical activity represents an important value in each individual's life and confirmed the need to developed early positive experiences in sport from a young age.

Janez Sodržnik introduced the initiative of a "Slovenian Sport Day" to the President of the Republic - with plans to host this on October 1st following Slovenia's sport history. The first gymnastic club of Slovenia, "Južni Sokol" was indeed founded on October 1st  over a century ago and set the foundation for the development of sports in schools, sports clubs, the education and training of human resources in the field of sports as well as top achievements in Slovenian sports.

Janez Sodrznik and Wolfgang Baumann also visited the municipality of Piran, Slovenia, where they met with the mayor of Piran, Đenio Zadković, to secure the municipality's support for the organisation of the World Congress.

The visit proceeded with the introduction TAFISA's role and mission for the development of Sport for All in cities and smaller local communities, as well as the opportunities presented by the Congress for the municipality of Piran. Mayor Đenio Zadković expressed full support to the event.