AFRICAN SPORTS MONTHLY
'Sports is our Business'
  • Home
  • NEWS
  • Radio
  • TV

FIVB President – “Best wishes for 2015”

1/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° at the 34th FIVB Congress in Cagliari, Italy in 2014

Lausanne, Switzerland, January 1, 2015 - It is with an enormous sense of pride that we came to the end of 2014 with the FIVB in better shape than ever.

When first elected FIVB President in 2012 I outlined three points which were central to the improvement of the organization: 

•        Good governance 

•        Opportunities 

•        Innovation 
A key part of good governance is transparency and the ability to have an open dialogue. This new transparent approach has seen us develop stronger relationships with the international community and in visiting numerous countries, heads of state, politicians, top sporting officials and leading international TV broadcasters we have enhanced the global profile of volleyball.

New opportunities are now also available through Development Hubs. We asked various countries to help with the development of volleyball in their neighbouring countries and, as a result, we are now using key federations to grow the sport around the world.

This initiative will also help us reach another aim: including volleyball as part of school curriculums. It is for this reason that we also recently launched the African Dream programme, a programme aimed at teaching volleyball in schools.

When talking about the growth of our sport it is impossible to ignore the success of the Beach Volleyball Continental Cup. Since the London 2012 Olympic Games we have increased the number of nations competing to qualify for Rio 2016 by 51 to nearly 200 national federations.

 

 

 

Additional opportunities have also been created with the new Under 23 World Championships and by increasing the number of teams in the other age-group World Championships. At our highest competition level we will have 32 countries taking part in the 2015 World League and 28 in the 2015 World Grand Prix, a testament to the improving level of volleyball worldwide.

New commercial partnerships are also providing us with new possibilities. Our current partners Mikasa, Honda, Gerflor and Jinling continue to support the maintenance of volleyball. They have now been joined by two new partners - Rosetta Stone and DB Schenker who had much value to our commercial interests. 

Another ground breaking 10 year partnership with Red Bull, arguably the world’s most innovative marketing company, will also help take beach volleyball to a whole new level. 

Innovation has also been at the heart of our growth strategy. We are beginning to engage new audiences and talk to the youth through digital platforms and social media.

We must strive to be the most innovative and technologically advanced sport on the planet and for that we have to commit ourselves to make a change in the way we communicate.

The introduction of the Volleyball Tracking System at the Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 is a good example of this. It presented data in a way we have never seen before, things like the speed of the ball, rally duration and the height of the spike helped enhance the public’s respect for the great athletic performance on show.

However, the most conspicuous example of this was the exhibition of the L.E.D. net during the same tournament. This will revolutionise the game in terms of sports entertainment and will again serve to modernise the presentation of our sport.

Of course, the presentation of volleyball is vital if we wish to expand our partnership with TV. For this reason we revised our rules and match format to make our sport more TV friendly. This included introducing a new challenge system technology to help make the sport fairer and more dramatic.

This drama was no more evident than at the World Championships in Poland and Italy.

The Men’s World Championship in Poland broke all volleyball records. 70,000 spectators just for the Opening Ceremony in a single stadium and more than 600,000 fans throughout the Championships! Poland is truly Volleyland! We brought volleyball into a whole new era of sports entertainment and Poland will be the benchmark for all volleyball events in the future. 

The Women’s World Championship in Italy was equally a great success with more than 350,000 spectators. We also saw how our development program has started to deliver real dividends as the Dominican Republic, for the first time in history, reached the final round and delivered outstanding performances  

It was a Championship of firsts. It was the first time USA won the World title and the first time Italy hosted the tournament.

But this success has created a big problem for the future (although a good one also) as future promoters will have to organise tournaments at least to this level.

We are now entering a true golden age of volleyball. In Rio, our sport will be the poster child of the Olympic Games. The story of the volleyball tournament will unfold in the Maracanazinho while beach volleyball will thrill crowds on the iconic Copacabana Beach, the only sport to be staged on the world-famous sands.

Four years later we will return to Tokyo where volleyball began its great Olympic adventure 50 years ago.

But before that we have a Beach Volleyball World Championships next year in the Netherlands, World League Finals in Rio, World Grand Prix Finals in Omaha, Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in USA and the World Cup in Japan.

With expanded TV coverage, expanded social media coverage, expanded sponsorship, and expanded marketing, we will continue to work together to grow our sport around the world, attracting new fans and attracting new athletes.

This is truly a golden moment for volleyball. We can only achieve this together. Thank you for your trust, thank you for your confidence. It is truly an honour to serve you and serve our great sport.

Best wishes for 2015.

Dr. Ary S. Graça F°

FIVB President

By: Editor
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Menu

    All
    2014 FIFA World Cup
    Athletics
    Basketball
    Boxing
    Commonwealth Games
    Cricket
    Golf
    Hockey
    Marathons
    News
    Olympics
    Rugby
    Soccer
    Spotlight
    Tennis
    Track And Field
    Volleyball
    Women Soccer
    Wrestling


    Picture

    RSS Feed


    Tweets by ASMONTHLY

Tweet to @ASMONTHLY

Contact Us

    Contact Us

Submit

Donate & Support Our Efforts at African Sports Media Network