ASIAN BEACH VOLLEYBALL ON THE MOVE WITH FIVB UPGRADE PLANS – Asian Volleyball Confederation

October 2017
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Bangkok, Thailand, October 2, 2017 – FIVB New Events Business Director Mr Angelo Squeo from Italy is convinced that beach volleyball still has a long way to go in Asia and the rise of the commercial level with social media and television also takes its toll in the continent.

Mr Squeo, who last week supervised the 29th South East Asian (SEA) Beach Volleyball Championships in Singapore, arrived in Bangkok on Sunday for a bilateral FIVB-AVC Meeting on October 2 and 3.

The first meeting on Monday was held among AVC and TVA, with AVC Secretary-General and Member of FIVB Board of Administration Mr Shanrit Wongprasert, AVC General Manager Dr Rueangsak Siriphol, Mr Songsak Chareonpong, Chairman of the AVC Referee Committee, Mr Jaksuwan Tocharoen, Secretary-General of the Thailand Volleyball Association, and AVC Beach Volleyball Director Mr Kritsada Panaseri in attendance.

One of the key topics raised for discussion on Monday was the AVC’s attempt to convert some of its World Tour events following the new events structure of the FIVB. The AVC would like to stage from 2018 and onwards the following events in World Tour events:

1. a 1-star in Satun (currently an AVC Tour event)
2. a 2-star in Samila (currently an AVC Tour event)
3. 1- or 2-star in Indonesia
4. 1- or 2-star in Vietnam.

To stage the above events in either April or May is the conceptual framework agreed between FIVB, AVC and TVA. Nonetheless, the agreement for 1 and 2 star can be of 1 season to be renewed for the following season.

AVC also would like to stage a 3-star event from 2018 which can be upgraded to a 4-star double gender event with the support of the FIVB. It’s likely that this event will take place in November in Thailand. The FIVB has suggested that a budget allocation be sent to the FIVB for a 3 and 4-star event to establish the sharing of the FIVB in case. In terms of the length of the agreement for a 3-star, it was agreed in principle that a period of 3 years until 2020 have been included.

AVC will soon circulate the terms & conditions as well as the changes which are currently in progress in order to receive the applications for the above NFs, while the FIVB will send a summary of the competition regulations and other requirements. It’s necessary that by October 15, the AVC and the hosting NFs send the candidature forms to the FIVB.

On November 7, the FIVB will have the World Tour Council in Lausanne, Switzerland and the above countries will be invited to share their knowledge. The AVC will ratify the calendar on its next AVC General Assembly on November 15, and next January on occasion of the AVC Board of Administration Meeting.

To avoid any conflict with AVC Tour, Mr Squeo indicated that the FIVB provided the latest tentative calendar to the participants and the AVC to study the current FIVB tentative calendar. A confirmation was made in the Monday’s meeting that the AVC will stage the Asian Championships every year instead of every two years.

“To increase the popularity of beach volleyball leading towards the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, the meeting agreed that more events should be staged in Japan such as the Asian Championships and 1-star World Tour event. A common effort must be implemented to help Japan,” Mr Squeo insists.

Due to the vast Age Group activities, the AVC and TVA have requested to stage the U17 event. The AVC believes that the U23 event has no value as these athletes are considered “already seniors.”

The FIVB has also confirmed that the U23 event has been abashed and it will be better to reinstate the U17 event to prepare the next generation of athletes. The TVA also showed an amazing chart featuring U12 (150 teams), U14 (150 teams), U16 (200 teams) and U18 (150) national events as well as Thailand Championships (64 teams). However, it was clarified that a NF can act as a promoter of the FIVB events.

In terms of the Events Requirements, FIVB communicated the changes that will happen upon receiving the FIVB Board approval. For instance, all 1 and 2 star events will have a qualification and the main draw will be played with modified pool play.

AVC has requested to have 1 star event with 24 teams in the main draw in order to enable Asian countries to have the possibility to compete. Moreover, AVC and TVA are also requesting to fix the schedule 21 days before to better promote the event.

“In multi-sport competitions, the FIVB will work closely with AVC to lobby towards the inclusion of beach volleyball in South East Asian (SEA) Games. The next edition will be in Philippines in 2019. This will further help develop beach volleyball in this region, while the next Asian Games will be held in Indonesia in 2018,” Mr Squeo added.

Meanwhile, the second meeting on TV and Marketing was held on Tuesday, with representatives from AVC’s sponsors and supporters in attendance. During the meeting, the TVA and its promoters agreed on the marketing rights and obligations.

Mr Squeo informed that the FIVB has blocked some sponsor categories that can be released upon request of the organizers and if there is no existing agreement signed by the FIVB for a certain category. EST Cola, a major sponsor of AVC and TVA, has been confirmed to be one of the sponsors of the World Tour events in Asia. For the commercial matters at the World Tour events, 70% of the commercial space will be for the promoter and 30% for the FIVB.

AVC’s official TV broadcaster SMM requested a clarification concerning the media rights for 1 and 2 star events. Mr Squeo said that in principle TV and digital rights can be exploited by SMM within the territory while FIVB will exploit the TV rights outside the territory.

As the FIVB needs the digital rights for its OTT channel and for uploading the live feed on Youtube, SMM requested to exploit the digital rights in the territory and eventually in Asia for all AVC events which will become World Tour events. The FIVB has been confirmed to give its official position about this latter request as soon as possible. However, the production requirements were provided by the FIVB to SMM for TV and digital production.

It is also proposed that wild cards should be well thoughts in order to enable Asian teams to enter in the loop of the World Ranking and entry points.

The FIVB Development Department has been asked to answer to the request of AVC to implement a seminar during the AVC General Assembly, while the AVC has requested for updates about the FIVB policy about video games concerning international events.

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