Beijing, China, March 19, 2024 – The Eastern Asia Volleyball Association (EAVA) held a signinificant meeting here at the New World Beijing Hotel on Tuesday afternoon and Mr Yuan Lei, himself Vice President of China Volleyball Association, was elected new president of the zone with a landslide victory.
Yuan Lei
Mr Cai Yi, current EAVA President, chaired the meeting with the attendance of delegates from 8 member federations of Eastern Zone as well as the EAVA Executive Committee Members. Attending as guests of honor comprised Mr Liu Guoyong, Vice Minister of General Administration of Sport of China, FIVB General Director Mr Fabio Azevedo, Mr Luis Alexandre Pontes Rodrigues, FIVB Director for Asia & Oceania, AVC Secretary General Mr Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai and Madam Lai Yawen, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of CVA.
Liu Guoyong
In his welcome speech ahead of the meeting, Mr Liu Guoyong, on behalf of General Administration of Sport of China and Chinese Olympic Committee, expressed his cordial welcome and high respect to the volleyball friends from FIVB, AVC and Eastern Zone.
“The Chinese Government highly values the development of volleyball and has implemented policies and allocated funds to promote the sport. We will, as always, support the work of FIVB, AVC and Eastern Zone. And we hope to make greater contribution to regional and world volleyball sport,” he was quoted as saying in his speech.
“East Asia embodies large population, high level of volleyball techniques, large market and a great potential for the sport. In the past decades, we have endeavored to develop the sport of volleyball together, and in the future let us keep united under the leadership of and support from FIVB and AVC so as to set a better environment for volleyball, deepen the regional exchanges, and jointly write a new chapter of volleyball sport in East Asia,” he added.
Fabio Azevedo, middle
Mr Fabio Azevedo followed to deliver a speech at the meeting. “It’s my honor and pleasure to be here to get with you today. I feel myself at home. I feel part of this family, a big volleyball family in the world, in Asia, in East Asia. We have achieved a great performance in the last twelve years, in the last three Olympic cycles. We are ready to move forward in the next Olympic cycles to come. Everyone and every movement counts on volleyball court as well as in our volleyball society. We need the spirit of collaboration. Let’s keep united and move on as a family.”
Kiattipong, fifth from right
Mr Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai, on behalf of AVC President Madam Rita Subowo, expressed his thanks to Chinese Olympic Committee and China Volleyball Association for the hospitality to host the meeting.
“This meeting is very important for us. This year is the election year of FIVB, AVC and each zone. We have finished election of 4 zones already, and here today we are the last zone. In the last four years, under the hard work of the president and everybody, East Asian Zone has done a great job despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We have many FIVB and AVC official events held in East Zone, including indoor and beach volleyball. And also they organized development courses for coaches and referees as well as the grassroots program. I hope, under the collaboration of our members and the hard work from everybody, the Eastern Zone will be the land of volleyball. And I also wish this meeting fruitful and successful,” Kiattipong said.
Members later approved the agenda and heard reports of the 2023 EAVA activities, featuring FIVB Olympic Qualifications, Hangzhou Asian Games and Chengdu Universiade. The establishment of EAVA Structure and Statues was also introduced at the meeting. Following the FIVB and AVC Statutes/Constitutions, it is necessary for EAVA to establish its own statutes and regulations. The documents shall be finished up and ready for approval at the EAVA annual meeting during the Eastern Zonal Women’s Championship held in Hong Kong, China in August.
Also like other zones, EAVA shall form Board of Administration to act as the decision making group, and establish competition related committees underneath the BA, including Sports Events Council, Referee Committee and Multi-function Committee. Each federation was informed to submit nominations for BA and Committee Members via email by the end of March. The final decisions will be made at the EAVA Annual Meeting in Hong Kong.
Dr Eom Han-Joo
Mr Yuan Lei, Vice President of China Volleyball Association, with rich experience in sports international relations, and Dr Eom Han-Joo from Korea, who has been serving as AVC SEC Chairman and EAVA technical delegate for many years, were the only two candidates for the position following the deadline to submit candidatures.
Madam Lai Yawen, far right
The election process was conducted by Mr Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai with the witness of FIVB to ensure the integrity and transparency of the election. After election manifesto by two candidates, eight member federations voted one by one. And Mr Yuan Lei prevailed through the ballot-based election and became the new EAVA President for the cycle of 2024 to 2028.
After the EAVA Meeting, the one-on-one meetings between FIVB and each Federation were held to discuss the volleyball development in each federation.
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