2016 FIVB Volleyball World League:WORLD LEAGUE GROUP 3 HOSTS CONFIRMED

 The 2016 FIVB Volleyball World League Group 3 hosts have been finalised with Slovenia, Mexico and Greece preparing to welcome matches in the first week of the Preliminary Round. Greece will also host a pool in the second week, alongside Tunisia and Kazakhstan.

The Week 1 matches in World League Group 3 will all be played from June 17 to 19. Pool A3 featuring Slovenia, Tunisia, Venezuela and Qatar will take place at the Sport Hall Stozice in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Olympic Complex Mexico 68 will be the venue for the Pool B3 matches in Mexico City, Mexico - the teams involved are Mexico, Spain, Montenegro and Germany. The New Indoor Sports Hall in Kozani, Greece will play hosts to Pool C3, which includes hosts Greece, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei and Puerto Rico.

The second weekend of the Group 3 Preliminary Round will take place from June 24 to 26. The matches in Pool D3 will be played in Greece at a venue still to be confirmed featuring hosts Greece, Slovenia, Puerto Rico and Qatar. The teams in Pool E3 - Mexico, Venezuela, Montenegro and Tunisia - will play at the Salle Olympique de Rades in Tunis, Tunisia. Finally, Pool F3 including Kazakhstan, Germany, Spain and Chinese Taipei will take place at the Balvan Sholak Sports Palace in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
 

*The pool hosts are highlighted

Twelve teams will participate in World League Group 3 in 2016. The Group will take place over a total of three weekends. The first two Preliminary Round weekends will be played by three four-team pools. Hosts Germany and the top three teams from the Group 3 Preliminary Round will play a Final Round at the Fraport Arena in Frankfurt, Germany from July 1 to 3.

Thai women’s spikers kick off intensive training for five major competitions this year

Bangkok, Thailand, February 5, 2016 – Thai women’s volleyball players assembled on February 1 at the 200-bed Athletes’ Dormitory inside the Sports Authority of Thailand in Bangkok to get ready for the official training commencement in preparation for five major competitions this year. A total of 24 players, many of them young, potential talents, have been called up to join the Thailand’s national camp ahead of top-flight tournaments including the World Olympic Qualfication Tournament in Japan between May 14 and 22, the FIVB World Grand Prix from June 10 to July 10 and the AVC Cup in Vietnam in September. However, four experienced players comprising hard-attacking Onuma Sittirak, who is now playing professional league in Japan, setter Nootsara Tomkom, Malika Kanthong and libero Wanna Buakaew, three of them are playing professionally in the Azerbaijan League, will return to join the squad after completing their leagues. Those called also underwent the fitness test and medical check-up that day, while training was held the day after. The training will last three and a half months ahead of their first competition of the year, the World Olympic Qualification Tournament, where they will take on hosts Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Italy, the Netherlands, Dominican Republic and Peru to vie for four Olympic berths including one from the best Asian team

AVC Technical Committee Meetings get underway

Bangkok,Thailand, February 4, 2016 – The Sports Events Council Meeting on March 5 will get the 2016 AVC Technical Committee Meetings at Dusit Princess Srinakarin Hotel in Bangkok off the ground.
A series of meetings from eight Technical Committees are expected to hear reports on the FIVB Commissions Meetings held in Lausanne in January and early February, review their work in 2015 and discuss about their future plans and more challenges to come in 2017.
The Sports Events Council, which was chaired by Mr Shanrit Wongprasert last year, but will be led by new chairman Dr Eom Han-Joo in its two-day meeting on March 5 and 6, is likely to focus on what lies ahead and approve the latest updates on the various competitions scheduled.
Also taking place on March 5 will be the Development and Marketing Committee Meeting, where key decisions will be made concerning the development and growth of the sport of volleyball across Asia.
The Medical Committee Meeting will be held on March 6, with Afghan Dr Mohd Yonus Popalzay being the newly-selected chairman, while the newly-established Press Committee, which was introduced for the first time last year during the AVC General Assembly in Saudi Arabia, will also be organised on the same day, with Mr Preechachan Wiriyanupappong chairing the meeting.
The two main topics to be raised for discussion during the inaugural Press Committee Meeting are how to improve the Press Operations among national federations and get familiar with major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter.
The Referees Committee Meeting is scheduled to take place between March 7 and 8. Being held on March 8 will be meetings of the Coaches Committee, which will be chaired by Mr Park Ki-Won, and the Beach Volleyball Committee, led by Mr Craig Carracher.
The Financial Committee will be the last one to hold its meeting on March 29 as the committee is due to take place only after the conclusion of the FIVB Finance Commission Meeting to be held later this month.

World League & World Grand Prix promotion/relegation process defined

The Sports Events Council confirmed that the promotion / relegation structure for each of the three groups of the World League and World Grand Prix will be maintained as per 2015 whilst reinforcing that relegated teams from Group 3 will be decided according to each of the Confederations regulations.

Confederations will propose what their process will be keeping in mind that all teams entering or leaving the World League and World Grand Prix can only do so from Group 3.

For the 2017 edition, Europe (CEV) and South America & NORCECA (CSV & NORCECA) have already confirmed their process as per the following:

CEV – The winner of the 2016 CEV Volleyball European League will be granted the right to be candidate for the 2017 World League and World Grand Prix respectively

CSV & NORCECA – The winner of the Pan American Cup 2016 will be granted the right to be candidate for the 2017 World League and World Grand Prix respectively 

Teams can be eligible for promotion only if they meet the FIVB conditions for participating in the tournament or the conditions for the respective group.

World Championships Qualification process to be confirmed by Confederations

Lausanne, Switzerland, February 2, 2016 – The FIVB Sports Events Council approved on Tuesday the concept of the qualification process for each continent for the FIVB Volleyball World Championships in 2018, which will take place in Japan (women) and Italy and Bulgaria (men) in 2018, being confirmed by respective confederations.

Each Continental Confederation will be responsible for their own qualification process and the Confederations will inform the FIVB on their agreed system by April 1, 2016.

The qualification system will be played between May 15, 2016 and October 15, 2017.

Number of participating teams and vacancies by continent

The Drawing of Lots for the FIVB Volleyball World Championships 2018 will take place by December 2017 using the FIVB World Ranking as of September 30, 2017.

World champions USA (women) and Poland (men) are automatically qualified and are joined by the host counties Japan (women) and Italy and Bulgaria (men) in not having to participate in the qualification process.

A proposal for the competition formula will be made to the FIVB Board of Administration meeting in April however the Sports Events Council did confirm the following points:

– same formula for men and women’s competition

– simple formula / easy to communicate to audience

– minimum number of matches guaranteed → 5 matches

– number of matches for the winning team → 11 to 13 matches

– maximum of 21 days of competition (2 or 3 matches per day)

– Since it is the first time that two countries host an FIVB World Championship, Italy and Bulgaria will be kept separate for the first two phases during the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship 2018.

Age Group revision wraps up Sports Events Council

Lausanne, Switzerland, February 2, 2016 – The FIVB Sports Events Council wrapped up its two day meeting on Tuesday with a revision of the Age Group World Championships as a key proposal which will go forward to the Board of Administration for approval in April.

Following working group sessions during the two day meeting, the Sports Events Council prepared the following proposals to the Board:

– The Under 23 World Championships to be held every four years
– Players not allowed to play in more than two age categories (including senior) in the same year 
– And a revision of the continental quota as per below:

The working groups dedicated to the FIVB International Sports Events Calendar and the FIVB World Ranking / Guidelines & Attribution of Points will continue to work on these subjects in an effort to formulate some clear proposals ahead of the Board of Administration meeting, which will take place in Lausanne from April 6-7.

FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° closed the meeting thanking the members for their work and stressed that change must continue to occur. “We must move with the times for the good of volleyball. We have a wonderful product but we can’t rest on our laurels. We have already implemented many new ideas but we must continue to work hard and innovate across all levels of our sport and across all national federations.

“Over the past few years it was about quantity, now it’s about quality. We need more good teams in all continents so I encourage you all to continue to look at ways the FIVB and volleyball can continue to evolve.”

Sports Events Council President Aleksandar Boricic reiterated the President’s comments and particularly highlighted that more work will go into focusing the change around match duration. “It is our mission to implement changes so that matches do not last longer than two hours. The global audience is demanding this so we must continue to find ways where we can modify our match structure. There has been plenty of good discussion and ideas over the past two days but we will continue to work to ensure that ideas and changes are implemented more quickly.”

The FIVB Sports Events Council meeting confirmed the venues for the five Age Group World Championships which will take place between June and August 2017.

Lausanne, Switzerland, February 2, 2016 – The FIVB Sports Events Council meeting in Lausanne on Monday and Tuesday confirmed the venues for the five Age Group World Championships which will take place between June and August 2017.

The Council also decided to submit recommendations to the FIVB Board of Administration to reduce the number of teams participating in the U18 Girls’ and U19 Boys’ World Championships from 20 to 16 and to organise the U23 Men's and U23 Women's World Championships over eight to ten days.

The 2017 edition of the Girls’ U18 World Championship will be hosted by Argentina, who also hosted the Boys’ U19 World Championship in 2015 in Resistencia Chaco and Corrientes. Bahrain will host the next edition of the Boys’ U19 World Championship in 2017.

Host cities were nominated for three Age Group World Championships. 

The cities of Boca del Rio and Cordoba in Mexico will host the U20 Women’s World Championship in 2017. 

The U21 Men’s World Championship was awarded to South-Moravia and Brno in the Czech Republic, while Ljubljana and Maribor in Slovenia will prepare to welcome the U23 Women’s World Championship in 2017.

The sixth and final Age Group World Championship in 2017 - the U23 Men's event - will be hosted on the African continent in Egypt.

Twenty teams compete in the current formats of the U18 Girls’ and U19 Boys’ World Championships, but the Council will recommend lowering this number to 16, in line with the number of teams which participate in the U20 Women’s and U21 Men’s competitions. The U23 Women’s and Men’s competitions will continue to feature 12 teams each.

Finally, the U18 Girls’, U19 Boys’, U20 Women’s and U21 Men’s competitions are all scheduled to take place over 10 days. For the U23 Women’s and Men’s competitions, the Council will recommend a minimum duration of eight days and a maximum duration of ten days.