Announced at the SportAccord Convention, Sochi will "play host" to the first edition of the World Beach Games in '19 but the Association of National Olympic Committees has "implied it will organise its own event separately," according to Nick Butler of INSIDE THE GAMES. The announcement "comes as a major surprise, and marks a shift in which SportAccord takes far greater responsibility for the inaugural event" rather than act in collaboration with the ANOC, as was proposed when the project was first launched in October '13. SportAccord President Marius Vizer said that the "door is not closed" for ANOC if it wants to resume its involvement, but he "insisted they are 'ready to continue to do the project with ANOC and the NOC's.'" But, after describing how ANOC has worked closely with SportAccord over the last year, it has implied it "will not be involved in the event in Sochi." The dispute between the two bodies is "related to the ownership of the event, with SportAccord objecting to the decision to allow a third party ownership of the event," something "strongly mooted" by Sheikh Ahmad earlier this year (INSIDE THE GAMES, 4/20).
