The GSMU is billed as a tool to help International Federations (IFs) evolve by adopting good governance principles and rules to deliver tangible results.

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti will serve as the chair of the GSMU, while he will be joined by three external experts.

"Our unit will be very pragmatic and focus on recommending concrete action, especially to IFs having difficulties introducing governance reforms," said Ricci Bitti.

"We will share with them best practice and offer solutions customised to their size, resources and context."

It is hoped the GSMU will help IFs achieve better governance by 2020.

The establishment of the unit follows the publication of ASOIF's second governance review, which was released in April.

This followed the initial review by ASOIF's governance task force in 2015.

IFs were claimed to have demonstrated progress over the two reviews, but it was agreed much work remained to address some "huge variations" in IF governance.

The 33 IFs assessed were scored out of a maximum total of 200, based on their answers.

Scores ranged from a lowly 46 up to 177, with six achieving a total over 150 whereas 12 scored under 100.

The mean score rose from 104 to 121 for ASOIF's full members, while the score was 113 when including associate members.

ASOIF claim their unit will help to close gaps in governance, with the objective of seeing at least 26 of the 28 full ASOIF members achieving a score of 120 by April 2020, using the 2019-2020 questionnaire.

The ASOIF Council also received updates on their "The Future of Global Sport" project, which assesses the speed of change impacting sport from political, social, technological and economic influences.

The project claims to help IFs have an adequate understanding of what the future may look like when they take decisions with long-term impacts.

ASOIF state they have interviewed key people from the Government sector, the business world and sport organisations as part of the project.

They expect to draw up recommendations on how IFs can remain "fit for purpose", with a full report due in early 2019.

A development proposal from the International Judo Federation was also "positively considered" with ASOIF now set to promote an initiative that will encourage refugee children and provide them greater opportunities to participate in different sports.

The Athletes' Declaration, which was adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session last month, was endorsed by ASOIF with the organisation's member federations now set to receive guidance on the document covering issues such as anti-doping, integrity, governance and discrimination.

Progress reports on the upcoming Olympic Games were also given, while the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games was praised.

Prior to the meeting, Ricci Bitti paid tribute to Patrick Baumann, following his sudden death last month.

The ASOIF Council later attended the memorial at Lausanne Cathedral for the former FIBA secretary general, IOC member and ASOIF Council member.