04/12/2019 20:00
CEV President attends historic meeting with IOC Executive Board
News from the CEV / FIVB
Lausanne, Switzerland, December 4, 2019. CEV President and FIVB 2nd Executive Vice-President Aleksandar Boričić was among the highest authorities in the world of Volleyball to attend a historic meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Dr Thomas Bach and IOC Executive Board in the new Olympic House.
The meeting was the first between the IOC Executive Board and the FIVB Executive Committee, and Volleyball became the first International Federation to hold a joint meeting with the IOC at their new headquarters, which opened in June 2019.
FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça Fᵒ shared important statistics that highlighted the work of the FIVB and the Volleyball family to engage with fans around the world.
“We are very pleased to have one of our most successful Olympic International Federations here with us. You understand what it means to be a global sport and all the challenges you may face,” Dr Bach said. “In the middle of these challenges, you have anticipated many of these developments already, and therefore I am very confident that we will have a very fruitful meeting today. Your motto is innovation, and we say the same but in different words. Change or be changed. If we want to keep our relevance, we have to innovate, we have to change otherwise we will fall behind and potentially disappear. Today, we are sharing the approach to these challenges. We look forward to your presentation here and to our following discussion together.”
The two organisations also talked about the importance of gender equality, and President Ary Graça outlined how the FIVB and their partners are working hard to promote women’s sport globally. “Family values and gender equality are very important for us,” the FIVB President said. “It is our aim to be the world’s number one family sport, and the FIVB has always used its platform to promote and empower women and girls. On the field of play, our women’s teams receive the same prize money and coverage as the men’s teams, and both men’s and women’s sport deliver the same financial results. I believe this stands us apart from many other sports.”
The CEV have been following this line as well, doing so especially with the historic CEV Champions League Volley Super Finals held this past May in Berlin – where the top two teams per gender played before a sell-out crowd for a total purse of € 1.2 million equally split among the respective winners and runners-up. The same goes for EuroVolley – with four countries hosting each gender’s event for the very first time and the top four teams from each tournament receiving the same financial reward for their performances.
The meeting at the IOC headquarters concluded with the two presidents agreeing to work closely together for the good of the Olympic Movement and the sharing of the Olympic values around the world. “This was an excellent opportunity to exchange our views and show our respective positions on different issues,” IOC President Bach said. “This has given us the opportunity to strengthen our cooperation.”
Photos courtesy of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
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