Bangkok, Thailand, February 1, 2024 – The AVC Sports Events Council Meeting was concluded on a positive note at Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel Bangkok on Thursday, with the future collaboration with Volleyball World and review of the Asian Championships in the previous season among the crucial topics raised for awareness and further discussion.
AVC SEC Chairman Dr Eom Han-Joo from Korea, himself Member of the FIVB Sports Events Council, chaired the Thursday’s meeting. The AVC SEC will also have a joint meeting the following day with the AVC Referees Committee and Volleyball World related to technical matters of AVC senior events this year.
Also in attendance in the AVC SEC Meeting on Thursday comprised SEC Secretary Ms Jeeraprapa Nontapa from Thailand, Mr Cai Yi from China, Mr Masoud Yazdanpanah from Iran, Mr Yermek Syrlybayev from Kazakhstan, Mr Toshiro Endo from Japan, Mr Raditia Rahmat Darwis from Indonesia, Mr Emile Jabbour from Lebanon (on Zoom) and Ms Patana Kittichaisombat from AVC Volleyball Department.
Also joining the meeting to share their FIVB Director in Asia and Oceania Mr Luis Alexandre and Mr Hitesh Malhotra from FIVB Technical and Development Department also attended the meeting to share information and presentation on revolutionary FIVB Volleyball Empowerment and Development Programmes.
Ahead of the meeting, AVC President Mrs Rita Subowo delivered an opening speech to all Members.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr Somporn Chaibangyang, President of Thailand Volleyball Association, who is always with us at AVC Headquarters here and organized a lot of things, especially in Thailand. We organized many competitions and a lot of activities at FIVB Development Center. Also, I would like to specially thank all staff at AVC Headquarters for their hard work for sustainable development of volleyball in Asia. Hopefully in the future, we can work together for the sake of Asia. I think Bangkok is very central in Asia and we can organize every activity here. I would like to inform all of you that the AVC Board of Administration Meeting, the last Board meeting of our term, will be held in Bali, Indonesia in May or June,” said Mrs Subowo.
“The AVC Sports Events Council is very, very important here to decide what will be the future of our competition, especially now with the FIVB’s help and new technology in VNL and Volleyball World and we should adapt. We have to study and learn our weakness first in order that we can join them and ask for help in those weaknesses from our competitions compared to other competitions in terms of sponsorship and organization.
“In the future, since this is a long-term contract, I think we should reach that level in Asia. However, although we had stopped all activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the progress AVC has made through the Sports Events Council is excellent and I would like to thank all the SEC Members to keep our activities going. As far as I’m concerned, we have one big difficulty in Asia compared to other Confederations, especially Europe. They are so close together, but the Asian countries spread out. Cost of traveling always becomes a problem for some Asian countries to attend the competitions. So, maybe in the future, we have to ask FIVB to help us for the solutions of this problem.
“I would like to thank all the Members of the Sports Events Council under the leadership of Dr Eom because your countries had represented and organized competitions. I hope that we will work together and help each other in the future,” she concluded.
The meeting started with the acknowledgement of the 2023 Minutes of AVC SEC Meeting in Bangkok and reports of the 2023 AVC Championships and FIVB Volleyball Council Meeting in summary. Members also commented on the good, the bad and the ugly of the previous Championships they were in charge last year.
After that, Dr Eom informed all the Members that this year features 4 senior events and 4 underage tournaments, citing that although Volleyball World will be in charge of all the senior events, all AVC SEC Members must be clear in terms of their responsibilities.
All Members were also informed of the Volleyball Calendar from 2025 to 2029 apart from the progressive report on AVC events in 2024.
Following the information about the FIVB Sports Events Council Meeting updates, since hosts of 4 AVC senior events comprising the Asian Club Championships and the AVC Challenge Cup for Men and Women are yet to be announced, the Members then heard the progressive reports on the four underage events to be held later this year.
The 15th Asian Women’s U18 Championship is due to be held in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand between June 16 and 23, while Jiangmen, China has been confirmed to host the 22nd Asian Women’s U20 Championship from July 1 to 8. A total of 13 teams apiece have already submitted their entries in both events.
Surabaya, Indonesia will organize the 22nd Asian Men’s U20 Championship from July 23 to 30 and Manama, Bahrain will host the Asian Men’s U18 Championship during July 28 and August 4, with a large field of 22 interested to strut their stuff in the former and 19 teams submitting their entries in the latter.
Due to the modified regulations, Dr Eom said that from this year onwards, not more than 16 teams will be accepted for the Asian underage events. As a result, selections and qualifications are necessarily required for the Asian Men’s U20 Championship in Indonesia and the Asian Men’s U18 Championship in Bahrain to determine 16 in the teams participation. Regarding the Asian senior events, further discussion and decisions are also required if teams participation is limited to not more than 12.
Meanwhile, decisions proposed to the extraordinary AVC BA Meeting to implement the regulations comprised 1. AVC will delete the teams that submitted the entry forms, but did not pay deposit money for the entry fee and the partial payment of accommodation from the drawing of lots, 2. AVC should make a punishment for the host if they change the host city, competition halls, training gyms and hotel after the inspection visit, 3. Increase the entry fee from USD900 to USD1,000 and 4. The number of players of each team can be accepted if it is less than nine players, but not less than six players, according to the FIVB Volleyball Rule of the Games 7.3.1 There must always be six players per team in play.
5. If a team withdraws, the number of teams in each pool is so uneven. For example, a group has only two teams, but other groups have four teams. Then AVC has the right to modify the pools, moving the last team of the 4th team group into the pool with 2 teams with a priority discussion of the host (Zone distribution), 6. Qatar Volleyball Association proposed to have more than one team from each federation to participate in the Asian Club Championship and 7. AVC and Volleyball World related to Technical Matters of AVC events.
AVC Secretary General Mr Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai made a final comment to the AVC SEC Meeting and thanked the SEC Members for their dedication and hard work, hoping that they will work closely together for future achievement of AVC and Asian volleyball, while Dr Eom thanked to all Members for their attendance in the AVC SEC Meeting.
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