Board of Administration joins relief efforts for Haiti and tightens up anti-doping provisions

News from the CEV

Den Haag, The Netherlands, February 1, 2010. With the Executive Committee and the Board of Administration having resumed this past weekend to Den Haag to discuss quite a few “hot” items, the European Volleyball Confederation definitely kicked off with the right pace a very busy year aiming expressively at backing up the tremendous successes of the past seasons.
Mr. Hans Nieukerke, President of the Dutch Volleyball Federation, was extremely pleased to welcome to Den Haag the CEV officials who had to go through a long and demanding agenda featuring on Friday afternoon also the traditional meeting of the EXCOM along with the Presidents of the various Commissions established under the CEV umbrella. On Friday night the Deputy Mayor of Den Haag, Mr. Sander Dekker, joined CEV President André Meyer and his colleagues for an official dinner celebrated in the majestic scenario of the Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel.
After the catastrophic earthquake that hit the Caribbean country of Haiti last January 12, causing thousands of casualties and tremendous damages to all local infrastructure, many international organizations – including sports associations – decided to join the many efforts performed to relief the local population and this will be also the case of the European Volleyball Confederation, whose intervention will be carried out and directly coordinated via former FIVB Board of Administration member, Mr. Jacques Joachim.
The Board of Administration was extremely pleased to check the financial accounts that were worked out for the year 2009, with a solid and encouraging surplus that will be also conveyed to support special sport-related programs being implemented in the various affiliated National Federations.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup – a complementary competition to the SWATCH FIVB World Tour and the SWATCH FIVB World Championships which is meant to be a catalyst to develop the game globally – will act, also in Europe, as an additional route for the National Federations to qualify their teams for the 2012 Olympics. Spanning from 2010 up to 2012, the Beach Volleyball World Cup will include also a sub-zonal phase whose organizers will be financially supported, as well as flights tickets for certain categories. All National Federations are kindly invited to register for the Beach Volleyball World Cup in due time, the final deadline having been extended for next February 15, 2010.
As far as the 2010 Beach Volleyball season is concerned, the U20 European Championships were allotted to Catania (Italy) and will run through July 8-11, whereas the very best U23 players will celebrated their annual climax next September 2-5 in the charming scenario of Kos, a real pearl of the Aegean Sea. The U18 European Championships are still to be assigned, with detailed applications to be forwarded to CEV as soon as possible.
With anti-doping campaigns being certainly a common feature for all Olympic sports, the Board of Administration agreed upon introducing a reinforcement of the sanctions foreseen for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball players being tested positive within the frame of any CEV official event. Even though the results of the tests are sometimes available only once the competition is over, they will anyway lead to the immediate disqualification of the player(s) concerned, who eventually will also have to return their medals, will be stripped of their respective ranking points etc.
Moreover, with the ambitious goal of strengthening the interactions with all parties, the European Volleyball Confederation will stage in the coming months a total of three seminars, starting with the female referees and the Beach Volleyball Technical Supervisors whose clinics will be held contemporarily in Rome next March 12-13, 2010. FIVB President Mr. Jizhong Wei will exceptionally join the refereeing seminar, thus backing up this major action CEV is performing to boost and extend the participation of female referees in international Volleyball competitions. On the other hand, all National Federations’ Press Officers will be resuming to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg next April 24 for an ad-hoc clinic starring also FIVB Communication Director, Mr. Richard Baker.
All inspection visits for the 2011 CEV European Championships were planned this past weekend in Den Haag, with Karlovy Vary having replaced Liberec as the second Czech venue for the men’s event. Supervisory Boards will be staged this coming May in Luxembourg for both Championships, whereas the candidature process for the 2012/2013 editions is already running at full speed, with all guidelines available on the CEV website and the deadline for submitting any official bid having been set for next April 2, 2010. The Board of Administration endorsed a provision stating that as soon as any National Federation is allotted the organization of future Championships, no changes of the initially foreseen competition venues will be permitted.
In terms of institutional activities, the dates of the 2010 CEV General Assembly to be celebrated in Ljubljana (Slovenia) were slightly changed and anticipated to October 15-16, 2010.
Three new Working Groups were also established in Den Haag: the so-called “Top Volleyball” will be responsible for analyzing the opportunities to increase the value of all existing top competitions towards sponsors, media etc; another group will deal with all issues related to the players’ agents, thus leading to the release of some recommendations to the National Federations and the athletes themselves; a third group will tackle with special programs addressed to the youth.
Finally, taking into consideration an opportunity descending from the FIVB, the European Volleyball Confederation will analyze the possibility of establishing a Coaching Commission, with an ad-hoc proposal to be submitted and – once approved - eventually included in the official statutes during the XXXI General Assembly in Ljubljana.