Lausanne, March 14, 2008 – The FIVB Board of Administration looked towards a bright future for Volleyball after a number of progressive proposals and presentations on the third and final day of the 2008 meeting in Lausanne, with all decisions made during the working session to be forwarded for approval at the 31st FIVB World Congress in Dubai on June 16-17, 2008.

The FIVB President Dr. Rubén Acosta and Board Members also welcomed on Friday the respective organisers of the four upcoming World Olympic Qualification Tournaments and 2010 FIVB World Championships and watched video presentations outlining plans for the events.

Successful Anti-Doping controls
It was reported that there were no positive doping cases at all in 2007 among the 39 tests for Men and 31 tests for Women and no positive cases in the following World Championships: Men’s Junior in Morocco, Women’s Junior in Thailand, Boys’ Youth in Mexico.
There were 56 out of competition tests by the World Anti-Doping Agency on Volleyball and Beach Volleyball athletes. On the Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour, there were 146 samples taken with only one positive result but there was no fault or negligence on the part of the player and thus no suspension. The overall percentage of positive cases in testing for use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout the Volleyball world was 0.36 percent (one of the lowest percentages in the sporting world).

Rules of the game
Proposals were advanced for new Volleyball rules. The World Congress will vote if players can make contact with the opponent’s court with any part of the body above the feet, and whether contact with the net is only a fault if it interferes with play (it is a fault if the players hit the top band of the net while playing or attempting to play the ball).

World Championships 2010 in Italy and Japan
A total of 200 teams are expected to take part in the 2010 World Championships compared to 174 countries in 2006. The 10 host cities for the Men’s World Championships 2010 in Italy, yet to be approved by the FIVB, are Ancona, Reggio Calabria, Catania, Florence, Rome, Milan, Turin, Verona, Modena, Trieste. The 15 venues presented to host the Women’s World Championships 2010 in Japan, still to be approved, are in the cities of Fukuoka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya, Nagano, Sapporo, Saitama, Kawasaki, Hamamatsu and Tokyo.

Beach Volleyball
There were 1,294 hours of international live television coverage in 177 countries of the 2007 SWATCH FIVB World Tour, with 500,000 on-site spectators and 63 countries participating. The TV audience grew by 350 percent from the previous year. The next season is set to be the best ever, with a record number of events. Beach Volleyball during the Olympic Games in Beijing is set to be a sell out after an excellent test event in 2007. The Board approved a new stand-alone tournament (like the FIVB World Cup for Volleyball) to be organised to qualify six pairs for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

31st FIVB World Congress in Dubai
A status report from Dubai was presented stating it will be the most successful FIVB World Congress ever. Visas have been guaranteed for delegates registered in the FIVB in due time.

Club World Championship
The plan for a Club World Championship in 2009 or 2010 was approved in principle. The first proposals to organise the tournament came from Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

Junior and Youth World Championships 2009
It was approved to host the events as follows: Junior Men’s: July 8-19, France; Junior Women’s: July 22 to August 2, Mexico; Girls’ Youth: August 5-16, India; Boys’ Youth: August 19-30, Italy.

Youth Olympics 2010
The Board agreed to propose that the Boys’ and Girls’ tournaments will both be Under-18 events, with players born after January 1, 1992.

New Media
The FIVB will provide highlights at the end of each event and will announce their availability to the major video news agencies and to study the possibility of selling these highlights to the open market.