February 20, 2017 – New event categorization and single elimination tournaments are the signature changes for the new FIVB beach volleyball season which the FIVB Beach Volleyball Commission celebrated during its annual meeting at the FIVB head office on Monday.

The FIVB’s introduced a new star structure for the 2017 season in order to deliver the best possible events for its athletes, fans and sponsors.

Celebrating a new era for international beach volleyball, FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° emphasized this point as he opened the Beach Volleyball Commission. “We have made a lot of changes to provide the opportunity for more events and therefore for more athletes to come through the system. Now we have to continue the growth and the innovation to continue our path on the road to an even more successful beach volleyball.”

“Let’s grow the game, helps us with this new strategy with technology and innovation at the forefront; and let’s do everything to make sure the players are comfortable.”

Announced last June for the FIVB World Tour between 2017 and 2020, all events on the international circuit have been assigned a star rating between one and five. The star structure is one of the many steps taken by the FIVB to modernise and streamline its competitions.

Five and four star are the highest level elite events while three, two and one star events are designed to develop the sport in as many regions as possible.

The aim of the new structure, which made its debut at this month’s 5 Star Fort Lauderdale Major, is to provide a platform and formation of events that increase the number of competitions in a growing number of hosting countries and create a sustainable business model while providing additional commercial flexibility and opportunities.

The new single elimination format also made its debut at the Kish Island 3-Star 2017 last week which sees the main draw conducted immediately in single elimination format (as opposed to starting with pool play in previous years).

The single elimination Main Draw format is applicable to 1-4 star events. Five star keeps pool play followed by single elimination.

The Beach Volleyball Commission, which had London 2012 Olympic gold and silver medallists Julius Brink and Emanuel in attendance, also received an update on the FIVB Vision & Strategy 2024 with the emphasis on whatever changes are made, “are done with the fans in mind.”

Other presentations included the update on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Austria 2017, which will be held in Vienna from July 28 to August 6, the beach volleyball competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games 2018.

Revisions to the World Cup Olympic Qualification were discussed and put to a working group as the Continental Cup 2018-2020 was presented while working groups were also confirmed to review the ranking point structure and the potential country quota playoff.

Following a new format put in place by the FIVB Board of Administration in December, commissions will now have no more than 10 members in total – a president, secretary and eight members – to allow for easier dialogue within the commission and the FIVB Secretariat. The commissions will lean on experts in the field for ideas and solutions although only members will be allowed to vote on proposals put forward to the Executive Committee.