2007 Women’s World Championship

“The basic rule of progress is change”. The FIVB President, Dr. Rubén Acosta, meets the press in Tokyo announcing some revolutions in the FIVB

Tokyo, 5th November 2007 - The FIVB President reported details on the latest news from the FIVB including the new FIVB premises in Lausanne, the FIVB World Congress 2008 in Dubai, a new colour ball designed for the Olympic Games and the respect of the right of young players to play for local clubs of their country implementing a limitation of players affiliated to other National Federations.

The President of the FIVB, Dr. Rubén Acosta H, has invited today some of the major Media who were in Tokyo for the World Cup 2007 to have a meeting lunch: questions were raised by the written press, radio and TV journalists and Dr. Acosta explained his view for the future of Volleyball.

“First of all, I should say that we’re very proud of our new premises “Chateau Les Tourrelles”” said the President. “We will have the official opening in April. My wife Malù was the supervisor of the magnificent restyle of one of the most wonderful castles in Switzerland. We will offer meeting and working facilities to the FIVB Family and one of the most modern installations in a sport organization office”.

“Opening the FIVB to every member of the Media is our most important policy, especially the written press, to come closer to Volleyball, to follow our events and share ideas. We were the first sport organisation ever which allowed journalists to join our Board and Congress since Acapulco 2004 and we hope to do the same for our next World Congress 2008 in Dubai”

Then the President showed an exclusive première to the Media: two new Mikasa balls, with amazing new design. “Together with our sponsor Mikasa, we’ve studied a new type of ball for our sport – said Dr. Acosta – and we will ask the teams to test the prototypes and report to us their feelings. Volleyball was the first sport to use a coloured ball and other sports followed us. Now it is time for new visions, with a new design and a different technological process that could affect positively not only the appeal of Volleyball, but also the ball control by players. Our plan is to use this new ball as a major change for the next Olympic Games in Beijing”.

One of the most important comments in the last weeks was the press release where the FIVB announced the limitation of foreign players on the court in clubs competitions. “We will forward this proposal to our next Board of Administration in March but I would like to stress that our first goal is to protect the young players’ right to play which is the key point: we need to promote local players, who will represent their country in our sport, to reach the court earlier in their career and not to be blocked by players affiliated to other Federations. National identity is reinforced through sports, and the last decision by the European Community in Porto seems to go in our same direction. We don’t want to stop the world’s top players to play in the best Leagues, but we will propose to the Board of Administration to have in each team a maximum of three players affiliated to another National federation, and a maximum of two on the court. In this way, younger players will have more opportunities to play at top level in their own countries side by side with the best players from any country.”

The President resumed all the next top FIVB events: 2008 World Grand Prix Final in Japan, the World Olympic Qualification to be stage in Japan in May and the World League Final in July2008 in Brazil, Grand Champions Cup in November 2009, Women’s World Championships 2010 in Japan and Men’s World Championships in Italy and World Cup 2011 in November in Japan. “I’m looking forward to the next Olympic Games in Beijing. In Athens we had more than 3.5 Billion of TV viewers for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. I’d like to reach 4 Billions next year. Anyway, we’re also focused on London 2012. We managed to convince the Organizing Committee to have Beach Volleyball out of the Olympic park and bring it near Buckingham Palace, on the Royal Guards Parade. It will be a fantastic spot for Beach Volleyball”.

The new Mikasa ball: technical guide

The new ball has been softened compared to the Mikasa MVP200. The panels shape has been completely redesigned. Cover material and the way of cementing carcass and panels have been changed: only line part, and not the complete carcass, is now glued.

The new ball was tested with the best available technologies by the laboratories from Mikasa. They report that new balls bounce higher with less impact-power (softer) due to improved constructions. Ball flying orbit got stable, avoiding sudden drop, thanks to new panel shape and cover material. Moreover, the new model fly stable with dimples on the cover (with panel shape change) and controllability when tossing and receiving was improved (found at field tests by Mikasa Corporation) with better gripping.

Two different designs were showed to the press and will be presented to World Cup teams, to ask for their opinion. One is similar to the typical Volleyball standard; one shows a more innovating look