And the end result has been a Universiade that has, in the main, run like clockwork.

"Well it has been much better than I expected," Gallien told insidethegames.

"I expected that it could be good, but it has been really good.

"Each Universiade is very different and all of them are a specific case.

"This one was really different.

"As usual there have been some small difficulties here and there but I believe we have avoided as far as can be the main problems in the fact that we had no village but the students and the heads of delegations have been very flexible. They perhaps would have liked to be in a [central] Athletes' Village but they appreciate also the small hotels around the place.

"When we chose Trentino, we knew them very well. They had been candidates for organising the Games in 2017 but had to withdraw for financial reasons. So we knew the people [Organising Committee] and we knew they had prepared a lot of things and we knew the region.

"When you have the Alps and the Dolomites, all the slopes and all the venues for ice sport, then you are on the shoulders of a giant."

Gallien, who is a former French University hammer champion, spoke to insidethegames in the lobby of the Grand Hotel Trento where he and his colleagues have been based throughout their two-week stay here. Elected as FISU President at the organisation's 32nd General Assembly during the Shenzhen 2011 Summer Universiade, the 71-year-old, who beat then incumbent George Killian of the United States by 76 votes to 67, is midway through his stint as chief decision-maker at the organisation.

And it is another chief-decision maker in the world of sports administration - the biggest chief of them all - International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, who is at the top of Gallien's to-meet list.

Although he admits that both FISU and the IOC are worlds apart in terms of size and influence, he claims that both organisations share many similar traits and face a lot of the same problems when it comes to the rather bureaucratic world of international sports governance.

Calling for a more joined-up approach and the greater sharing of ideas is hardly a knock-you-off-your-stool moment when such all-encompassing and grandiose rhetoric from men and women who hold similar positions of power to Gallien is heard almost every time they step up to make a speech.

So, what's new?

Claude-Louis Gallien claims to have some interesting proposals to put to IOC President Thomas Bach when they meet in the coming months ©AFP/Getty Images

"We are trying to develop a new strategy because the world of sport is changing a lot," Gallien said.

"I want to be proactive.

"I want to be nearer the IOC.

"There is a new President and I will be planning to meet him in Sochi [at the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics] and then again after the Winter Games.

"I have some proposals [to put to him] because I think we have the same origin because we believe in the Olympic spirit and education and sport.

"We are very complimentary in the domain of sport, youth and education.

"We [Universiades] are an intermediate between the Youth Olympic Games [YOG] and the Olympics.

"I would propose that we should look at how we can use our level of similarity at the level of athletes. Universiades contain high levels of performance and we can be a kind of filter for the Olympics.

"We are similar in terms of organising events. Bach has the same problems as me like developing good relationships with International Federations [IFs]. I mean I know perfectly well that the IOC and FISU are on totally different scales but at least it could be interesting to discuss these things.

"We are similar too in that we organise big events. We organise two huge events every two years, while the IOC organises two massive events every four years. If you think that with our Universiades, we can be seen as a test event for Olympic bidding cities.

"I mean, I don't want the IOC to eat FISU but I believe that we can cooperate in a very big way and maybe we can develop cooperation like the IOC has with the Paralympics [International Paralympic Committee (IPC)]."

FISU claims that the Universiade is the second biggest sporting event in the world after the Olympics. It claims there were around a record 12,000 athletes at this year's Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade and almost 3,000 here in Trentino for the Winter version, and it seems that the Games are definitely on an upward spiral in terms of participation.

However, while the numbers are increasing in terms of participants, the same cannot be said when it comes to bidding to host the biennial events. Granada, which will host the 27th Winter Universiade in 2015, was the only bidder for the event when it was awarded in 2009, while last month, Krasnoyarsk in Russia was granted the hosting rights for the 2019 Winter Universiade after the only other bidder, Valais in Switzerland pulled out.

Claude-Louis Gallien says that relations between Russia and FISU are very good following Kazan 2013, which gives him confidence for the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade ©AFP/Getty Images

Baku officials decided against going ahead with their 2019 proposal just a week before the host city announcement was due to be made, claiming that it wanted to concentrate on ensuring the delivery of the three major events set to take place there in the coming years which include the inaugural European Games in 2015, the 2016 World Chess Olympiad and the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

Rather farcically, Hungarian capital Budapest, which has hosted the Games in 1935, 1949, 1954 and 1965, pulled out the day before the host city was to be chosen, leaving FISU officials with an easy decision to make, or rather no decision at all.

Predictably, Gallien tried to play down the fact that such a raft of withdrawals may be cause for alarm, before confidently predicting that the bidding process for the 2021 and 2023 Universiades will see a larger pool of potential bidders.

"No we are not concerned, I mean obviously I would have preferred more but we have to adapt sometimes," Gallien said.

"We have very good contacts with Valais, but you have to consider that these people have their own politics in Switzerland. There is a federal state and the regions are different. They changed the Government in Valais around the moment they were going to decide whether to bid or not and they chose not to. But, Valais was a very, very good candidate.

"We could have a fear that taking only one candidate might not be good, but we have such good contacts now with the Russians after Kazan 2013.

"We were confident about Krasnoyarsk and not afraid of what could happen.

"I would have preferred more candidates and in the future we will have more.

"But, the one thing is, that each candidate does not like to lose and we negotiate with interested candidates very carefully and explain to them what is going on.

"For us it is important to also have a good relationship with Russia, which is the largest country in the world, and personally I think going to Siberia is very good because it is the future of Europe."

Krasnoyarsk 2019 will be the first time Russia has hosted the Winter Universiade and following on from Kazan 2013, the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, it will complete Russia's "Decade of Sport".

Similarly, the 2019 Summer Games in Brasília will bookend Brazil's period in the international sporting spotlight, and like in Russia, FISU will be following in the slipstream of FIFA and the IOC once again as the South American country will have hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, before the Universiade takes place in the Brazilian capital.

FISU claims it is not concerned by the public protests in Brazil which have cast a shadow over the country's hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio 2016 claiming that the youth of the country are behind the Brasília 2019 Summer Universiade ©AFP/Getty Images

However, as witnessed at this summer's FIFA Confederations Cup and in subsequent months since, anger and frustration in Brazil at the perceived lack of quality and increasing costs of public services has led to a raft of protests across the country against the money being spent on hosting major sporting events.

The 2019 Universiade, which will be the second to take place in Brazil after Porto Alegre in 1963, is expected to cost in the region of £616 million ($986 million/€736 million) but Gallien rejects any suggestions that the Games will be the subject of further public fury, insisting that the student population and the young people of Brazil have demonstrated their desire to see the event return to the country after what will have been a 56-year absence.

"We can use our specificity to our advantage," Gallien told insidethegames.

"We are a niche organisation, and our focus is on university sport and students, as well as considering health, sustainability and development programmes.

"I have been in Brazil and met President Dilma Rousseff and her Government and what is important for them is that they want to have these Games to make [positive changes in the country's youth].

"There is a very strong students union in Brazil, which is half a continent, and they have indicated that they want to have these Games and will support them, and if you have the support of them then that is very important."

"Six years before the Games we have strong support for them from young people in Brazil.

"That's what Universiades do, they bring young people together."

Gary Anderson is a reporter for insidethegames. You can follow him on Twitter here.