On Monday we presented to your attention the first part of the article  ‘Does volleyball need more or less international competitions? ‘

Here we give you our conclusions. Feel free to send us your opinion on the topic.

What may lie beneath the surface – a struggle for power?

Another, more plausible reason for the creation of more continental competitions may be FIVB’s desire to establish itself as the sole overseer of all volleyball activities around the world.

Volleyball is hugely popular in South and South East Asia, which is one of the main reasons why the sport is ranked amongst the most popular in the world. However, although hundreds of thousands of people play volleyball in this geographic region, there is little or no structure in their activities.

 

The national federations are small and weak, and hence the leagues are weak and poor. Because volleyball is not organised and structured in these areas, FIVB has got very little influence on the local, usually recreational, competitions and existing there. Furthermore, because most of the countries in Africa, South and South East Asia are not taking part in the main FIVB competitions such as the World League, World Grand Prix, World Cup and World Championships, the international governing body has reduced power over them. In other words, FIVB may want to increase its interaction with a selected group of national federations, so it can control them better. And by introducing its own structures of volleyball, the governing body can tap into the enormous pool of volleyball players who have never previously played the sport in any way organised by, or under the supervision of, the FIVB.

That is probably why FIVB and its affiliate continental confederations have introduced the newly-formed junior and senior volleyball competitions as a means of penetrating into previously ‘unconqueredterritories. These are competitions whose scale is big enough to be deemed important by the targeted national federations but small enough to enable these nations to participate in them. Some might ask why the FIVB would need to intervene in such places. After all, the organisation’s role is to govern volleyball, therefore, it sees any form of the sport not directly controlled, or at least officially supervised by them as a threat to their power and legitimacy.

Photo source: sport-asia.com