New Delhi, India, January 14, 2015 – Bangladesh will host the 2015 Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship by the end of April following the AVC Central Zone Volleyball Association Meeting on January 14 in New Delhi, India, with presidents and general-secretaries of all 14 Central Asia Zonal Association countries attending.

Mr Davarzani Mohammadreza, President of the Volleyball Federation of India, chaired the meeting, which was organised by the VFI. The AVC First Vice President Mr Essa Hamzah Alfailakawi and Mr Ramon Suzara, Chairman of the AVC Development & Marketing Committee, were also present in the meeting to help the Central Zone promote volleyball and utilise the development programme for all its member countries.

According to the meeting, Bangladesh has been entrusted to organise the Asian Senior Men’s Central Zone Volleyball Championship within April. This championship will be held among nine countries comprising Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Tajikistan and hosts Bangladesh. To help make the tournament a smooth run, AVC will provide the financial assistance under the FIVB Development Programme amounting 25,000 Swiss Francs.

As for the Men’s U23 Championship, Iran, India, Kazakhstan and Pakistan will have to play a qualification tournament in an effort of making the cut for the Asian Men’s U23 Volleyball Championship in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar from May 12 to 20.

All national federations have also been requested to provide their programe plans and budget to obtain the development fund from AVC/FIVB. In this regard, Mr Ramavtar Singh Jakhar from India, Dr Mohd Younis Imal Populazay from Afghanistan and Mr Kylych Sarbaghyev from Kyrgyzstan have already submitted their reports before January 31, 2014.

Meanwhile, Iran and India have come forward to conducting a Zonal level tournament from 2015 onwards, while Afghanistan and Bangladesh had requested for the Gerfloor Synthetic Surface from AVC in 2015 through the FIVB Sponsorship.

The following decisions were also taken during the meeting.

Iran will provide the playing uniform to the teams participating in the Central Zone Championship free of cost, while India will offer 100 volleyballs and 25 nets and also provide the technical support to the Category 1 and 2 countries which participated in the Central Zone Meeting. AVC also promised to support the same.

At the same time, Iran will provide their coaches to member countries to conduct VIS Course and analyser course in their countries. The air tickets will be provided by the AVC and the boarding and lodging by the host country.

It was decided to provide used balls for the needed countries, while a Press Officer from Iran and a Zonal development officer from India were appointed to take charge of the Central Zone.

For the 2015 Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship, India and Iran are qualified, while Kazakhstan were included as the third team from the Central Zone. If AVC agrees in principle for the increase of the participants to 18 teams, then the next seeded team will be eligible.

The other proposals of each national federations were also taken into consideration during the meeting.