Croston honoured by Federation of International Touch vote

England Touch Association Chair Mark Croston says that he is honoured to have been elected onto the new Board of the Federation of International Touch.

Croston was one of five new Directors voted onto the sport’s international governing body at a Special General Meeting held on Saturday, November 6th, along with Michael Abramowitz (Switzerland), Topy Xu (China) and Australian duo Aaron Jones and Peter Topp.

The Federation of International Touch’s (FIT) members also voted for a new constitution for the association, which will now operate under a company structure, and comes in the same week in which FIT outlined a three-phase plan to return to full global international competition, including the 2022 European Touch Championships in England.

“I’m honoured to have been elected onto the FIT Board and would like to thank all the NTAs who supported me and I look forward to serving them and the sport,” Croston said.

“It is an exciting time for Touch as we emerge from the pandemic, as our sport offers so many possibilities to different communities across the world, who have the common aim of providing a positive environment for players of all identities, ages and backgrounds to come together at all levels from social to international.

“The new directors offer the sport an impressive array of skills and experiences, and I’m looking forward to working with them.

“A massive thanks also to Bill Ker and the other outgoing directors, whose dedication and commitment has laid the foundations on which we will build.”

The last 18 months have seen the England Touch Association take several steps forwards in its development, including launching key partnerships with a range of sporting organisations and coaching companies, growing the National Touch Series at all levels, and welcoming new clubs to the Association in the wake of local Regional Roadshows.

This has been underpinned by a collegiate and inclusive way of working led by Croston and Chief Executive Chris Simon, and Croston says that there is more to come domestically, too.

“Over the forthcoming weeks we will be pushing forward with our own succession planning for the sport in England and will publish our 2020s Vision at the turn of the year,” he added.

“As you will expect, being on the FIT Board will not distract me from pushing on with the ETA Vision and working hard on the transition forwards. In fact the encouragement my fellow ETA colleagues have all given emboldened me to step forward, and I would of course like to thank them for their support.”

Outgoing Secretary-General Bill Ker, who first joined the FIT Board in 1989, said: “I believe the members have made an excellent choice in selecting the five directors to take our sport forward.

“The skillsets of Topy, Michael, Mark, Aaron and Peter will carry on the hard work of the previous Board for the benefit of all our members.”