The FIVB president Ary Graca is in the eye of a storm. The reason? There are some claims of irregularities about misappropriation of 11.3 million dollars when he was Head of Brazilโs Volleyball Federation.
According to a report by the countryโs anti-corruption agency, companies controlled by relatives of the former president of Brazilโs volleyball federation are involved in a scandal that caused that the Bank of Brazil, canceled their sponsorship. The Bank of Brazil sponsored the CEV since 1991.
The report said funds from Banco do Brazil were distributed in 13 โirregularโ contracts to companies from 2010 to 2013. Some of the companies belong to individuals connected with the Brazil volleyball federation, known as CBV, and others may not have been real businesses (NB existing in reality), according to the comptroller generalโs office.
Graca and the others involved deny wrongdoing and say they acted in the best interests of Brazilian volleyball.
โBank of Brazil reiterates that we would never agree with illegal practices that harm sports and the volleyball community,โ the bank said in a statement. It demanded the CBV adopt new management practices to bring greater transparency to its finances.
โNobody at the CBV was punished,โ double Olympic silver medalist Murilo Endres said on his Twitter feed. โItโs a nonsense. Those who are the responsible ones have got away with it.โ
Another shock came from Brazil today. The Brazil Volleyball Confederation (CBV) refused to host the finals of FIVB World League 2015. Brazil had to host the final stage of the most commercial volleyball tournament in the upcoming year. The decision of CBV surprised many and it is claimed that the main reason for the refusal for hosting is the fact that FIVB surcharged the head coach of the Menโs team Bernardo Rezende and some of the players (NB the head coach wonโt be leading the team for 10 matches, the libero Mario Junior wonโt take part in the competitions for 6 matches, Murilo Endres for 1, while the captain Bruno Rezende has to pay a fine of 1 000$ ). The reason for the surcharge was the refusal of the head coach and the players to talk after a match in the FIVB World Championship in Poland 2014. It seems that CBV is giving a response to FIVB by refusing to host the finals of FIVB World League 2015.In addition, CBV claims that the fines came of the circle around the administration in FIVB which is involved in the corruption scandal. It is more than sure, that without the help of Banco do Brasil it would be very difficult for CBV to organize such a big event.
This is not the first corruption scandal in the world of volleyball.
On November 2014 Polish federation head Miroslaw Przedpelski, his deputy Artur Popko and the owner of a security firm are arrested byThe state Central Anti-Corruption Office on suspicion of corruption. Prosecutors charged Przedpelski and Popko with accepting bribes and the security firm owner with offering them bribes totaling $326,000, in exchange for having hired the firm for the championships.
Some information taken from Bloomberg News (By Tariq Panja and Yasmine Batista) and bgvolleyball.com
