2020 AVC CHAMPIONSHIPS LIKELY TO GO AHEAD DESPITE COVID19 FEARS

AVC has planned to organise its 23rd General Assembly in coming October, as hosts, participating teams and AVC TV Media Partner have geared up for all 2020 AVC Championships on condition that the Covid19 situation starts getting back to normality within June.

The 23rd AVC General Assembly was first due to be held in Bangkok in June but has to be postponed in accordance with the new dates for the FIVB World Congress, which was rescheduled for January 27-29, 2021 in Phuket, Thailand. Taking the FIVB’s timeline into consideration for further decision, AVC has planned to hold the 23rd edition of its General Assembly in October 2020. The new dates for the biennial meeting have been set to be officially confirmed as soon as the Covid19 situation returns to normal, with Asian countries lifting their lockdown restrictions and airports and transportation solutions implemented to ensure continuity of service.

To make sure that staging all 2020 AVC Championships remains on the right track, AVC has recently circulated its letter to all affiliated National Federations, presenting its two Options, which have already been approved by AVC Board of Administration Members and showed possibility and probability for AVC to organise 2020 AVC Championships amid growing Coronavirus 2019 Disease (Covid19) outbreak.

In Option 1, if the Covid-19 situation improves dramatically within the end of June 2020, AVC needs either 2 or 2 and a half months for keeping a tight grip on coordinating with host countries, participating teams and AVC TV Media Partner in preparation for the organisation of the Championships.

For volleyball, in particular, AVC has less than two months to complete eight Championships ahead of the 2020-2021 National League season.

In the light of Covid19 pandemic, the continental governing body can organise 2020 AVC Championships and relevant competitions from last week of August or early September until the second week of October 2020.

Four AVC Championships abided by TV Partner and New Media contracts – Asian Men’s and Women’s Clubs Championships and AVC Cup for Men and Women – must be finished within September or the first week of October at the latest.

The other Championships without a landmark television agreement with TV Media Partner comprise AVC Challenge Cup for Men and Women, Asian Men’s U20 and Asian Women’s U19 Championships and Asian Men’s U18 and Asian Women’s U17 Championships.

The AVC Challenge Cup for Men and Women and the Asian Men’s U20 and Asian Women’s U19 Championships, which serve as the qualification tournaments for the FIVB Men’s U21 and Women’s U20 World Championships, can be held at the same period (from September to the first week of October), while the Asian Men’s U18 and Asian Women’s U17 Championships, the qualification tournaments for the FIVB Men’s U19 and Women’s U18 World Championships, can take place in September until December.

Regarding beach volleyball, the AVC Continental Cup Semi-Finals (Phase 2) and Finals (Phase 3) were postponed. However, as the FIVB has already confirmed that all the Continental Cup SemiFinals and Finals shall take place by no later than May 2, 2021, the AVC Continental Cup Semi-Finals and Finals, therefore, should be held ahead of the afore-mentioned date in order that the qualified teams will have enough time to prepare themselves for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games between July 23 and August 8, 2021.

Meanwhile, the Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships are due to be organised from last week of August and the other Asian Beach Volleyball Tours will also kick off from September 2020. However, AVC will confirm competition regulations with host federations within coming June.

In terms of the other AVC Zonal Championships, each zone can make decisions on their own but shall inform AVC to include relevant competition information to the revised 2020 AVC Competition Calendar.

Nevertheless, the AVC Competition Calendar can be modified in accordance with availability of the host federations but shall be organized at the above-mentioned period and agreed among AVC, TV Media Partner and organizers. AVC will reconfirm the Competition Calendar at the beginning of July 2020.

In Option 2, unless the Covid19 outbreak can be easily predicted, with the crisis continuing until the end of July 2020, making AVC Championships unable to go ahead as planned, AVC has decided to cancel all 2020 AVC Championships and relevant competitions because the 2020-2021 National League season will start from October 15, 2020.

Instead, AVC will try to organise the Underage Championships (Women’s U18, Men’s U19, Women’s U20 and Men’s U21) during January and February 2021 in order that the Asian qualified teams can be decided ahead of the FIVB Underage World Championships later next year.

FIVB ANNOUNCES CANCELLATION OF VNL 2020

The FIVB today announced the cancellation of the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2020 due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic and its impact on host cities being able to deliver safe, accessible and high-quality competitions.

The VNL 2020 was scheduled to begin on 19 May 2020 for the women’s competition and 22 May 2020 for the men’s event. The FIVB announced the postponement of the event in March 2020, in order to protect the health of players and all involved, and hoped to find a date later in the year.

However, given the evolving nature of the pandemic, the complexity of staging the global event, across multiple host countries, and the commitment to safeguarding participants’ health, the VNL Council, the FIVB Board of Administration and the event organisers, jointly agreed to cancel this year’s edition of the VNL. The FIVB is continuing to work closely with all parties to coordinate the schedule for the VNL 2021 while retaining both Italy and China as the host nations for the Finals.

FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° said:

“Together with our partners, we had explored all the various options to host the VNL 2020. Part of what makes the VNL so special is that it is a truly global event enjoyed by players and especially by fans from all around the world. But this strength also increases its risk during this current global pandemic. It would, therefore, be imprudent, maybe even irresponsible for us to go ahead with the event when we cannot provide players and all stakeholders with the certainty that the VNL 2020 would be safe, accessible to all and held at a high level.

“Instead, our attention now turns to VNL 2021 and making sure it is our best ever edition. I know that our incredible athletes will be unrelenting in their efforts to prepare for the competition, and I have no doubt that next year will prove to be a very exciting year for volleyball.”

In addition, both the men’s and women’s editions of the 2020 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup, originally scheduled to be hosted in Gondomar, Portugal and Zadar, Croatia between 24-28 June respectively, will not be held this year. Teams that qualified for the VNL 2020 in the 2019 edition of the Challenger Cup, the Slovenia national men’s volleyball team and Canada national women’s volleyball team, will retain their places for the VNL 2021.

Last year’s edition of the VNL featured 16 of the world’s best teams in each gender competing for the coveted VNL Champions title. Russia took first place in the men’s finals in Chicago, the United States and the USA took the top spot in the women’s in front of huge crowds in Nanjing, China. The event also saw more digital fan engagement than ever before, with the attraction of over 550,000 new social media followers and an incredible 3.8 billion social media impressions over the course of the competition. The VNL 2021 will look to top these figures by captivating volleyball fans across the globe once again.

AVC RELEASES TENTATIVE DRAFT OF REVISED 2020 VOLLEYBALL CALENDAR

All 2020 Asian Underage Championships shall be organised by the end of this year in accordance with the availability of host countries despite grave concerns over the global Covid-19 outbreak.

AVC has been closely following the massive pandemic of the novel coronavirus on a daily basis since the beginning of January 2020 and also is in active communication with AVC Board of Administration and AVC Technical Committees in an effort of continuing its activities and competitions on schedule as many as possible.

In light of the rapid spread of Covid-19 around the world which has resulted in the temporary suspension of global airlines operations, AVC has decided to suspend all activities from the third week of February 2020.

However, in its best possible preparation for the resumption of services and activities in case the Covid-19 could eventually be under control with all airlines able to resume normal operations of commercial flights, AVC has sent the tentative draft of the revised 2020 AVC Competition Calendar to its Board of Administration and all affiliated National Federations, implementing a strategic plan to organise all AVC competitions in case the Covid-19 situations will be drastically improving within June 2020.

Regarding the modified 2020 AVC Competition Calendar, the 2020 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand and the 20th Asian Women’s U19 Volleyball Championship in Chongqing, China will be the first two AVC Championships to be held this year and are likely to be held simultaneously from August 30 to September 6.

The 2020 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship in Tianjin, China and the 20th Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship in Tehran, Iran will be the next two AVC competitions to be organised at the same period from September 10 to 17, 2020.

After that, Myanmar will host the 2020 AVC Cup for Men in Nay Pyi Taw from September 21 to 28, while the 2nd AVC Challenge Cup for Women will also be be organised at the same period but host country remains unconfirmed officially.

From October 1 to 8, Chinese Taipei will host the 2020 AVC Cup for Women in Yunlin, with the 2nd AVC Challenge Cup for Men taking place in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan between October 3 and 10.

During November 1 and 8, Thailand will host the 13th Asian Women’s U17 Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Pathom, while host country for the 13th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship from November 15 to 22 has yet been officially confirmed. Nonetheless, if necessary and unlikely to be held in “regular” fashion, both tournaments can be postponed until February 2021 because most of the underage players do not participate in National League season, which will start from October 15.

The revised Competition Calendar shall be organised in the above-mentioned period and agreed among AVC, TV Media Partners and organisers ahead of the reconfirmation by AVC at the beginning of July 2020.

However, if the growing Covid-19 outbreak continues until the end of July 2020, AVC has planned to cancel all 2020 AVC Championships and Competitions and the qualified teams for 2021 Underage World Championships are poised to be decided by FIVB world ranking.

In 2020, only 4 AVC Championships – Asian Men’s and Women’s Clubs Championships and AVC Cup for Men and Women – will be held upon the effective TV rights deal with TV Media Partners, while the other Championships including all four Underage Championships will take place without any rights issue to deal with TV Media Partners.

TENTATIVE DRAFT OF REVISED 2020 AVC COMPETITION CALENDAR

August 30-September 6: 2020 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
August 30-September 6: 20th Asian Women’s U19 Volleyball Championship Chongqing, China
September 10-17: 2020 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship in Tianjin, China
September 10-17: 20th Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship in Tehran, Iran
September 21-28: 2020 AVC Cup for Men in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar
September 21-28: 2nd AVC Challenge Cup for Women (TBD)
October 1-8: 2020 AVC Cup for Women in Yunlin, Chinese Taipei
October 3-10: 2nd AVC Challenge Cup for Men in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan
November 1-8: 13th Asian Women’s U17 Volleyball Championship in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand (or February 2021)
November 15-22: 13th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship TBD (or February 2021)

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED FOR REVISED 2020 AVC BEACH VOLLEYBALL COMPETITIONS

Following the recent release of the tentative draft of the 2020 Volleyball Competition Calendar amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, AVC on Friday announced its intention to hold four beach volleyball events later this year.

Due to the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), AVC, carefully monitoring the situation in full cooperation with its Board of Administration, FIVB and all affiliated National Federations, decided to postpone many beach volleyball events, considering the health and well-being of athletes, officials and fans as its top priority.

The tournaments postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak included the 2020 Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships, due to take place at Saphan Hin Park in Phuket, Thailand between March 12 and 15, the Asian Beach Volleyball Tour “Samila Open” in Songkhla, Thailand from April 14 to 16 and the AVC Women’s Beach Volleyball Tour Can Tho Open in Vietnam between April 20 and 23.

The AVC Continental Cup Semi-finals and Finals, which serve as the qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and due to take place in China’s coronavirus epicentre Wuhan from June 20 to 22 and June 25 to 28 respectively, also suffered a fresh setback when both events have been postponed until next year.

In addition, the FIVB World Tour 1-star event Pak Bara Open in Satun, Thailand from April 8 to 11 was cancelled, while the FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Roi Et, Thailand during September 1 and 6 has been postponed to a later date.

According to tentative scheduling, AVC announced its intent to organise four Asian beach volleyball competitions this year. The Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships are expected to get the 2020 AVC beach volleyball events off to a good start when the double-gender competition has been rescheduled to be held in Phuket, Thailand from August 26 to 29.

Thailand will also organise the double-gender Asian Beach Volleyball Tour “Samila Open,” postponed earlier to be rescheduled for September 19-22 at Samila Beach in Songkhla, while the other two events comprise the Asian Beach Volleyball Tour in Penghu Islands in Chinese Taipei between October 14 and 18 and the AVC Women’s Beach Volleyball Tour Can Tho Open in Vietnam during October 24 and 28.

The other two major beach volleyball competitions will also be held in November, with the 2020 FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships being rescheduled for November 10-15 in Roi Et, Thailand and the 6th Asian Beach Games taking place in Sanya, China between November 26 and December 5.

Despite the release of the tentative draft of the 2020 AVC Beach Volleyball Competitions, the schedule can be modified up to the availability of host countries but shall be organised in the above-mentioned period and agreed among AVC, TV Media Partners and the organisers. Reconfirmation for the 2020 AVC Beach Volleyball Competitions will be announced by AVC at the beginning of July 2020.

TENTATIVE DRAFT OF REVISED 2020 AVC BEACH VOLLEYBALL COMPETITIONS
August 26-29: Asian U19 Beach Volleyball Championships in Phuket, Thailand
September 19-22: Asian Beach Volleyball Tour “Samila Open” in Songkhla, Thailand
October 14-18: Asian Beach Volleyball Tour in Penghu, Chinese Taipei
October 24-28: AVC Women’s Beach Volleyball Tour Can Tho Open in Can Tho, Vietnam
November 10-15: 2020 FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Roi-Et, Thailand
November 26-December 5: 6th Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China