FEI agrees to pay president
Ingmar de Vos is to be the first paid president of the FEI.
Following a vote to allow remuneration at the FEI Sport Forum (28 April), the FEI bureau has also now agreed.
The vote was taken at an extraordinary general assembly, where 59 nations were present. There were also 27 powers of attorney — totalling 86 valid votes.
The nations voted unanimously to change the statutes to allow the president to receive remuneration.
For the past 60 years the role of FEI president has always been unpaid. However, members of the Royal family had held the position since the 1950s.
Last week (10 June) the FEI bureau consented to the rule change.
A temporary committee will now study the legal aspects of the decision and “compare the way the matter is handled by various international organisations and to establish the exact amount of remuneration”.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
This committee will be chaired by the FEI’s first vice president John Madden. It will have Mark Samuel of Canada, and chair of regional group IV, and Brian Mangan of Ireland, chair of the FEI audit and compliance committee as members.
The committee will work with PricewaterhouseCoopers. “The committee will negotiate and agree on the package with the president. The committee will then report back to the bureau,” read an FEI statement.
During his campaign to become president last year Ingmar was clear on his intentions.
“The FEI is now a professional organisation that needs professionalism at all levels. Many international federations and organisations now have presidents that receive remuneration. There is nothing unusual about this. It is, in my view, not a good practice that the presidency would only be limited to volunteers that can afford it,” he said at the time.
“If the EGA were to reject, I would of course respect this and would continue as a volunteer [president], though in that case I would probably also have other occupations not related to the FEI.”
Belgium’s Ingmar De Vos took over from Princess Haya as president of the FEI after a vote in December — in which he received 98 votes out of a possible 131.
Princess Haya had been in role for eight years. She was allowed to stand again for another four-year term, but stepped down to focus on her family and humanitarian work in Gaza.
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.