FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° chaired an Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the AVC Board of Administration at the Grand Fourwings Hotel in Bangkok on Wednesday, asking for cooperation among all 65 AVC affiliated member federations and the AVC to set up a long-term development plan and help move the continent’s volleyball-governing body forward.
Following the official inauguration of the new AVC Headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday, the special AVC meeting was held to approve the minutes of the AVC Board of Administration meeting in Incheon, Korea in April early this year, the report on setting up the AVC Headquarters in Thailand, the report on the AVC’s marketing and TV right holders from 2016 and next year’s AVC competition calendar.
AVC President Dr. Saleh Bin Nasser said that under the leadership of President Graça, many aspects of volleyball have already seen significant improvements. He encouraged all affiliated federations globally to develop and meet the new targets set by the FIVB. “The AVC has learned a lot from the FIVB and will put all its efforts into promoting and developing volleyball in Asia. All the AVC Board members have worked very hard to increase the interest of spectators, media and marketing agencies to compete with other sports and get more income to support the organisers, participating teams and affiliated federations.”
FIVB President Graça encouraged the AVC to continue their hard work in an effort to move the volleyball body ahead. Africa, Europe and NORCECA already have their own clear-cut long-term development projects and President Graça suggested that the AVC should put a similar project in place.
“You should start immediately on whatever you decide to do. Remember deeds are better than words. You have to cooperate well in supporting and helping all AVC affiliated member federations. With good cooperation, the AVC can move ahead in line with the FIVB’s policy to attract more interest from the people and gain marketing benefits for the organisation. AVC must continue to work on making their products quality products. However, keep in mind that to help and support all 65 affiliated member federations does not mean you give them fish, but you teach them how to fish,” Dr. Graça said.
Mr Wei Jizhong, Honorary Life President of the FIVB and the AVC, added: “It’s my great pleasure to work with all of you. I agree that we have to work, not to wait. To develop the standard of teams, national federations should keep on sending their teams to participate in almost every tournament.” Mr Wei also supported the idea of implementing a long-term development project.
Mr Essa Hamza, AVC First Vice-President, reported to the meeting on the setting up of the AVC Headquarters in Bangkok and on AVC marketing and TV rights holders from 2016. AVC Executive Director Mr Liu Jun followed with a report on “Leading AVC to a New Era”.
FIVB President Graça pointed to the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014 as the benchmark for all future competitions and an example of successful marketing. “As I said before, AVC already has a good product. So, we have to make it a high-quality product for the market. Think more about the future. Without a market, our products cannot be sold and that means the people will turn to other sports,” said Dr. Graça.
Mr Essa Hamza informed the meeting that the AVC’s contract with IEC in Sports will expire at the end of 2015 and that the AVC has received marketing proposals from other international and local agencies. In his closing remarks, he added that the AVC Headquarters in Beijing, China will close on December 31 this year and from January 1 next year, all activities will be monitored by the AVC Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. The 35th AVC Board of Administration Meeting is scheduled for May 2015 in Bangkok, while the next AVC General Assembly is due to take place in Saudi Arabia next November.