(Reuters) - Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who stood down as president of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, has been nominated for a return to the post at the governing body's congress next month.
Usmanov, who has ploughed funds into the sport through the International Charitable Foundation for the Future of Fencing he founded in 2005, was first elected FIE president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2021.
The 71-year-old's fourth term only lasted a year, however, and he stepped aside after the European Union imposed economic sanctions and a travel ban on him in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Greek Emmanuel Katsiadakis has served as interim president since but Usmanov has now been nominated by 103 national federations for a return to the presidency at the congress in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Nov 30.
He will go up against Swedish former Olympian Otto Drakenberg, who created a storm at the 2022 FIE congress by insisting on a debate about human rights concerns before Saudi Arabia was awarded the junior world championships.
Russian and Belarusian fencers were initially banned from international competition after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine but the FIE became one of the first federations to allow them back into competition the following year.
No Russian or Belarusian fencers took part in this year's Paris Olympics as none of the athletes from the two countries who were deemed eligible to compete as neutral athletes entered the qualifiers.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney and Lidia Kelly, editing by Peter Rutherford)
