The International Federation de Volleyball (FIVB) on Monday
presented to the media new balls which had been designed for the
2008 Beijing Olympics.
"Together with our sponsor Mikasa, we've studied a new type of
ball for our sport," FIVB President Ruben Acosta told reporters on
Monday. "We will ask the teams to test the prototypes and report to
us their feelings."
"Volleyball was the first sport to use a colored 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," he added.
Two different designs were showed to the press and will be
presented to teams taking part in the World Cup to ask for their
opinion. One is similar to the typical volleyball standard while
the other one shows a more innovating look.
The FIVB was also considering limitation of foreign players on
the court in club 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," Acosta
said.
"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 FIVB president was expecting a great success of volleyball
and beach volleyball in next summer's Beijing Olympics.
"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," he
said.
"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."
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)