FISU chief executive and secretary general Eric Saintrond made the assertion at the FISU General Assembly here in Taipei.

He highlighted that the organisation will directly approach potential host cities and work closely on developing their bids, in order for them to fully outline the FISU’s requirements.

Saintrond claimed the approach had proved successful in securing Naples at the host of the 2019 Summer Universiade, as well as encouraging Lake Placid to bid for the 2023 Winter Universiade.

Naples stepped in as a replacement for Brasilia last year following the Brazilian capital's withdrawal in January 2015 after being unable to meet financial commitments.

While FISU were able to announce Swiss city Lucerne as hosts of the 2021 Winter Universaide in March 2016, they are currently without a host for the summer edition in the same year.

Responding to a question on the bidding process at the General Assembly, Saintrond acknowledged FISU had needed to take a proactive approach.

He highlighted the 2022 and 2024 Olympic bid races as evidence that there was a current shortage to potential candidate cities.

“If you follow the activities of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), you will know very well that for the Winter Olympics they had only two candidates [for 2022], Beijing and Almaty,” Saintrond said.

“Before, they had about six candidates, but now the shortlist was only two.

“For the Summer Games, you have seen what has happened two weeks ago, they had to attribute 2024 and 2028 because there were only two candidates.

“They were scared about the future.

“If it is not easy for the IOC, imagine how it is for us."

He went onto say that this suggest FISU have to find a "more proactive" method of finding hosts.

“For many years now we do not have only the Olympic Games, but we have Youth Olympic Games, Continental Games and the Commonwealth Games," Saintrond said.

“At the end, there is not enough cities to organise Games.

“We have to be proactive and every month we are in contact with cities.

“As soon as we have had of an interest, as we did with Lake Placid, we immediately contact the member association and we work together.

“We have had to change something in the procedure as we cannot wait.

“A long time ago we had many candidates, but that is not the case anymore.”

FISU President Oleg Matytsin encouraged the General Assembly to come to the organisation with ideas for potential hosts of future events.

The Russian acknowledged the progress being made towards securing a host for the 2023 Winter Universiade, with Lake Placid having presented their vision to the FISU Executive Committee on Wednesday (August 16).

“I am pleased with the development and cooperation we have with officials from Lake Placid and the state of New York, who have shown huge interest in hosting the 2023 Winter Universiade,” he said.

“We should not forget that we have not yet secured a host for the 2021 Summer Universiade.

“But we still have candidates.

“The search continues and if you have ideas or suggestions, let us discuss them.”

The two-day General Assembly has taken place here prior to the start of the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade tomorrow.