The World Squash Federation has commissioned an independent review following an Extraordinary General Meeting in London©WSF

An independent review is to be commissioned by the World Squash Federation (WSF) to evaluate the sport's future following an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in London.

The review, launched by WSF President N. Ramachandran, will study governance, structures and relationships to maintain the process of improving practice and performance.

There remains widespread disappointment within the sport that squash last year failed for the third consecutive time to be added to the Olympic programme. 

It was not among the five sports recommended by Tokyo 2020 to be added to the Games and was overlooked in favour of baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding sport climbing and surfing.

All five were this week officially endorsed by the International Olympic Committee's ruling Executive Committee. 

It followed previous failures by the WSF to be added to the programme for London 2012 and Rio 2016.

The EGM debated a number of proposals put forward by a Global Task Force comprising a number of Member Federations set-up at the WSF Annual Meeting in Nice last November. 

At that meeting, Professional Squash Association chairman Ziad Al-Turki and chief executive Alex Gough challenged the WSF leadership on a number of issues, including accountability for the latest failed Olympic bid. 

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Squash's bid to be included on the Olympic programme has now been rejected three consecutive times ©PSA

A total of 18 motions were debated by the EGM. 

They ranged from constitutional revisions such as the number of vice-presidents; creating possible new positions; the term of office allowable; setting age limits for Board members; national eligibility to attend and vote; together with further possible alignment to the IOC preferred governance statutes for Member Federations.

Motions which passed increased the number of vice-presidents by one to four; altered the terms of President and vice-president from four terms of two years to two terms of four years; and instituted a rotation to ensure that elections for all positions will not take place at the same time.

The meeting also set an upper limit of 75 years of age for officers.

A further amendment was to eliminate the requirement that an incoming President should have served on the WSF or a Regional Board prior to nomination.

Other motions that link various rules directly into the WSF constitution, including match-fixing, wagering, athlete entourage and "Principles of Good Governance", and anchoring the status of WSF as an IOC Recognised Federation, were all approved by the meeting.