Africa earns more slots in FIVB World Championship

By  Oscar Pilipili and Agency

The 2014 World Championship qualification will be another era for African volleyball after Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) granted the continent three places in the men’s category and two places in women’s group at the coming highest world volleyball event.

The CAVB Sports Organising  Committee (SOC) decided during its meeting last November that the African Qualification will be played in three phases- sub-zonal, zonal and final phases.

The SOC meeting decided that the sub-zonal competition would be organised with four to five countries.

Kenya Volleyball Federation welcomed the new development saying it would help develop African volleyball to greater heights.

National secretary general Evans Wasike said the changes were clear indication that the FIVB are recognising Africa’s effort in development of the sport.

“The additional slots are good for Africa because our teams need to play more matches at international level to gain exposure,” Wasike told FeverPitch in Nairobi yesterday.

“The more number of teams Africa send to World Championship the better because more players would be exposed,” said Wasike.

Algeria women were sole African representatives in the previous tournament that was held in Japan in 2010.

The new system of qualification secures a massive participation of more than 45 countries similar to the system of beach volleyball continental tournament which showed a dramatic participation of the biggest number of National Federations in the history of African volleyball.

Extended deadline

FIVB has extended the deadline for 2014 World Championship registration to January 2013, therefore giving all African countries the opportunity to participate in the prestigious global event.

Both FIVB and CAVB will support the organisers of the different competition stages to encourage more organisers to be ready for the event.

Meanwhile, Tunisia is the new host of the Men’s Junior African Nations Championship, which will run from March 2 to 9, replacing Morocco who withdrew as hosts last month.

The Men’s Junior African Nations Championship is considered the biggest between all the age group competitions attracting the biggest number of participants in Africa.

The competition will act also as a qualifier for the FIVB World Championship of this age category as the top four teams will secure their berths at the 2013 FIVB Men’s Under-21 World Championship to be held in Turkey from August 22 to September 1, next year.