NAN-S-10
By Kemi Ajayi
Sailing
Lagos, Feb. 1, 2017 (NAN) The World Sailing body has announced the relocation of its headquarters from Southampton to London.
The body said on its website that London was selected after an extensive evaluation process of possible locations undertaken since the election of a new President and Board in November 2016.
It said the criteria used for the evaluation included international City, connectivity and ease of Access for world sailing members and stakeholders.
Others are ability to retain existing staff, international diversity with a high quality and multilingual employment base.
According to the statement, the cities evaluated are Southampton, Geneva, Lausanne, London, Winchester, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
It noted that Southampton, London, Barcelona and Valencia were shortlisted by the board of directors in December 2016 before picking London.
It said the World Sailing body has been in Southampton for the past 20 years but the organisation’s roots, and its predecessors were in London since its formation in 1907.
It added that Kim Andersen, the World Sailing President, said the decision was taken in the best interest of the sport.
“We have taken into consideration the DNA of World Sailing as a whole and the technical skills we need to run the organisation.
“The aspect of being international and having options of multi-lingual competencies and accessibility has been weighed and reviewed.
“We are pleased to announce that in the best interest of the organisation and the sport we have decided to move the headquarters to London.
“Each city put forward a strong proposal and I thank them for their proposals and Southampton for hosting the governing body for the last two decades,’’ it said. (NAN)
KOA/PDE
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(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)