Having had to make the awkward decision to shift this year’s World Championships from Sochi in the wake of the McLaren Report findings on systematic Russian doping at the 2014 Winter Games, he and his fellow Board members know they can rely upon the German track which has hosted the event on five previous occasions to come good for a sixth time over the next fortnight.

Königssee, indeed, has already stepped up to the mark following the need to switch an earlier version of these Championships, successfully hosting the 2011 event that was due to go to the venerable Italian course at Cortina d’Ampezzo until the track ran into problems with the local authority.

All this is good news for the ebullient Italian who ran alongside the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics track in his underwear for a bet after the French four-man bob he then coached had taken bronze.

"Königssee for us is like putting money in the bank," the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member told insidethegames. "We know it is safe. 

"We are sure it will be well managed and well organised. Even though we had to switch the event at such short notice we never had any doubts."

The short term prospect may be secure, but the truth is that, just over six years after he became President of the governing body, Ferriani and his sport have hit some decidedly bumpy ice.

"Our sport is changing, adjusting to a new life," Ferriani said as he looked ahead to the Championships. "It is not an easy moment for us."

Among the changes which impacted most heavily upon the IBSF was the threat from competitors to boycott the forthcoming World Championships if they were not moved from Russia.

Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold called on the IBSF to move the World Championships from Sochi in October, with the women's skeleton Olympic champion also refusing to rule out boycotting the event.

Her stance was backed by Belgium’s Kim Meylemans.

On December 11, two days after the second part of the McLaren Report claimed more than 1,000 Russian athletes had benefited from state-sponsored doping from 2011 to 2015, Latvia announced that it was boycotting the Championships being held at Sochi.

The Latvian statement read: "The Olympic spirit was stolen in 2014, now we say enough is enough. While our international federation is still going to 'read and digest the report' we will do what we can."

South Korea, Germany and Austria joined Latvia and athletes in Britain and United States in calling for the event to be moved from Sochi.

On December 13, the IBSF Executive Committee made the decision to move the Championships from Sochi, stating that "during this difficult time it is prudent not to organise such an event in Russia".

The Executive Committee said the decision was made to "allow athletes and coaches from all nations to participate in a competition that focuses on sport rather than accusations and discussions - whether justified or not".

The decision was warmly received by many competitors, including Yarnold, who tweeted: "So glad our voices are being heard and our sport is joining the fight against doping in sport".

All of which must have been of comfort to Ferriani - but did he feel that, by the time the IBSF made its decision over the World Championship venue, the boycotts and threats of boycotts had left the federation with no choice but to switch?

"We didn’t take the decision with regard to the number of boycotts that were threatened," Ferriani responded.

"I took the decision with my Board. That is what I am here to do as President. I thought that, with the difficulties of this particular moment, going to Sochi for the World Championships was not appropriate. It was not the right time to go there.

"For this event it was a time to breathe, to stop. To reflect. That was the reason we took the decision - it was a decision for the sport in general, and also for Russia."

An additional complication in all this for the IBSF is the fact that Gazprom, Russia’s global natural gas company, is one of the main sponsors of the World Cup circuit.

Did Ferriani therefore feel it was a brave decision to shift from Sochi?

"I will very soon meet with Gazprom," he said. "It is not a question of being brave - it is a question of taking the right decision. So this will be a chance not just to talk about that decision, with which maybe not everyone will fully agree, but also to say why it was taken. It is about creating understanding and moving forward.

"Everything costs something. I preferred to take that decision at the time rather than to leave it. I will talk to Gazprom and will see if we can understand each other.

"They still appear under our Federation banner. I will be having a personal meeting with them, although the timing of it will partly be decided by the fact that I cannot travel by air for a month after having an operation on my ear.

"It is important that we set up systematic meetings, rather than occasional meetings whenever something has to be signed."

There was further satisfaction in many quarters of the winter sport scene when, on December 30, the IBSF provisionally suspended four Russian skeleton athletes who had been named in the second part of the McLaren Report.

But just over a week later those provisional suspensions were lifted by an independent panel charged by the IBSF with considering the athletes’ appeal, which concluded there was "not yet sufficient evidence" to maintain the ban.

Elena Nikitina, Olga Potylitsina, Maria Orlova and Olympic champion Alexander Tretiakov were duly allowed back into competitive action.

The ruling cited article six of the European Convention on Human Rights, regarding the protection of the right to a fair trial and the guarantee of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

"The Doping Hearing Panel comes to the conclusion that McLaren Report ll provides sufficient reason to conduct further investigation by both the IOC and the IBSF into the role of the athletes in 'tampering or attempted tampering of any doping control', as being in line with article 3.1 of the ADR of the IBSF," an IBSF statement said.

"But at the same time it comes to the conclusion that at this very moment there is not [yet] sufficient evidence against the athletes that would justify the provisional suspension.

"The Doping Hearing Panel invites the IOC to share any outcome of its investigation with the IBSF in order to potentially reconsider the position of the athletes in this respect."

Cue widespread reactions of dismay, which sharpened with the subsequent decisions by the International Ski Federation (FIS) to refuse to lift the provisional suspensions it had imposed on six Russian cross-country athletes also named in the second part of the McLaren Report.

How did Ferriani explain the discrepancy in findings between the IBSF and the FIS?

"We are here to protect the rights of clean athletes," he replied. "But we are not the judges. We can only apply the rules. The four athletes involved asked for their right to a hearing and we put together an independent panel of two lawyers and a doctor to hear their case.

"That panel decided there was not enough objective evidence to refuse this appeal. It was an objective decision. When we receive a final statement and judgement from the IOC on this matter we are ready to apply the rules in a hard way if necessary."

Did he not feel there were some mixed messages coming out for winter sport, given the FIS stance in similar circumstances?

"These are all different individual cases," he said. "Maybe their federation had more evidence available. It is a complicated situation. But we are not the judges. If we receive a final confirmation that certain athletes have broken anti-doping rules, we will apply our rules 200 per cent."

The IBSF Anti-Doping Rules, based on the World Anti-Doping Agency's models of best practice and valid from January 1, 2015, include an option to suspend a federation for up to two years if four or more of its athletes are found to have contravened anti-doping regulations in the space of a year, and for up to four years if that figure is eight or more.

The relevant passage is in article 12.3, relating to sanctions and costs assessed against sporting bodies.

"IBSF may elect to take additional disciplinary action against National Federations with respect to recognition, the eligibility of its officials and athletes to participate in international events and fines based on the following," it reads.

"Four or more violations of these anti-doping rules are committed by athletes or other persons affiliated with a National Federation within a 12-month period in testing conducted by IBSF or anti-doping organisations other than the National Federation or its National Anti-Doping Organisation.

"In such event IBSF may in its discretion elect to: (a) ban all officials from that National Federation for participation in any IBSF activities for IBSF anti-doping rules for a period of up to two years and/or (b) fine the National Federation an amount up to €10,000 (£8,500/$10,600).

"If four or more violations of these anti-doping rules are committed in addition to the violations described by athletes or other persons affiliated with a National Federation within a 12-month period in testing conducted by IBSF or Anti-Doping Organisations other than the National Federation or its National Anti-Doping Organisation, then IBSF may suspend that National Federation’s membership for a period of up to four years."

Would Ferriani ever contemplate enacting such a suspension?

"We have that rule," he said. "If we have a clear judgement we will apply that rule 100 per cent. It’s not a subjective decision, but an objective one. 

"What I don’t want to do is anything based on presumption. I want to have clear, objective evidence. That is the right of the athletes."

Those athletes are currently getting themselves ready for a World Championships that promises much excitement.

"I think we can expect some very close races at Königssee in both the women’s and men’s events," Ferriani said.

In the two-man bob, Germany’s Francesco Friedrich looks nailed on for a home win after a season in which he has established himself more than 100 points clear over Steve Holcomb of the United States in the World Cup standings with four wins and two second places.

Friedrich’s two-man victory along with brake man Thorsten Margis in the penultimate World Cup race at Igls on February 4 was matched on the women’s side by Elana Meyers Taylor, and she is now third in the overall standings behind her US compatriot Jamie Greubel Poser and Canada’s Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries, who leads the rankings.

Germany’s Jacqueline Loelling and Tina Hermann are first and second in the women’s skeleton rankings, while the men’s event sees Latvia’s Martins Dukurs topping the lists in front of Sungbin Yun of Korea and Axel Jungk of Germany.

Russia’s Tretiakov, despite missing the third World Cup race at Altenberg because of his brief provisional ban, looks likely to press Dukurs - who he beat to gold at Sochi 2014 - all the way, having finished second behind him at Igls after winning the previous World Cup on the Königssee course that will host the forthcoming Championships.

And another Russian world title looks distinctly possible given that the four-man bob rankings are currently headed by Alexander Kasjanov’s crew.

It has been suggested that Russian victories in the World Championships, given the vexed issues currently afflicting all Russian Olympic and Paralympic sport, would be far from universally acclaimed by fellow athletes.

Does Ferriani fear there could be some awkwardness around the Königssee podiums?

In response, he cites the fourth World Cup of this season’s series at Winterberg, where Tretiakov returned from his ban to place third behind Dukurs.

"I was present in Winterberg when Tretiakov and Martins Dukurs were competing," he said. "And when they were on the podium Dukurs shook Tretiakov’s hand.

"Dukurs is a good example of fairness and clean sport. His attitude is: 'Now Tretiakov has come back to competition. We must wait until any judgement is made. I do my race'. I think that is the best example to be given to other athletes."

Making that judgement will not be simple - and the judgement itself awaits the judgement to be made by the two IOC Commissions currently charged with investigating the charges of organised doping in Russian sport.

With less than a year to go until the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, this is certainly not "an easy moment" for the IBSF.

"As soon as possible we must come to the end of all this, because this is not good for sport," Ferriani said. "What I wish for, what I will work very hard for, is to have a clear situation before the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

"I think the forthcoming World Championships will provide a very exciting spectacle, which is very important from the point of view of the spectators. This year the battle for the rankings has been so close for men and women.  This is what makes the sport interesting.

"I sometimes say we are not a sports federation, we are a sports company, and we are created to sell emotion. That is what we want to give to our spectators and followers.

"In my sport it is absolutely clear that we fight against doping. We need to have a clear doping code. We don’t want to have doubts any more. For the young generation we want to be sure that competition is clean.

"I will work strongly to create the situation where we have a clean sport. That is what we want.

"I believe in the future of our sport."