Meeting report of the 3rd EFVL Meeting in Brussel 2016
First and foremost we like to thank everyone involved in this successful and truly historical meeting. A record of 10 european footvolley nations came together at our table in Brussels and even more importantly everyone made it home safe. For three days we shared information, projects and discussed the future of Footvolley.
Attending were Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Unable to join the meeting for various reasons were: Switzerland, France, Sweden and Bulgaria. They have expressed their interest to be present at the next meeting in October 2016. Many cases were presented, discussed and then voted on. Amongst others we decided that:
Each member nation will have an EFVL Ambassador whose mission it is to develop and promote footvolley all over Europe. He or she will serve as the prime point of contact for their nation and will have a deciding vote at the table of The League. You can find the 10 EFVL Ambassadors in the members section of our website. Plus we have great expectations to add new members in the following weeks.
Besides more organizational matters, we also drafted the EFVL Charter: our ethical agreement and code of conduct. We strive to create an open and transparent footvolley community. This to ensure to have a League that is based on honesty, trust and loyalty with a special focus on the protection of the players. All agreed to uphold ethical values like saying no to any discrimination, to corruption, to doping, to gambling and so on.
Furthermore we talked about EFVL media, branding, financing and sponsorship. We discussed how to the current budget will be used. For example: The League will finance an exhibition of Ladies Footvolley at the European Championship in Germany 2016. In addition we decided that the net height for ladies will be at 210 cm.
A great deal of our attention went to the organization of the European Championship in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Technical details, the rules, the schedule, the number of teams and delegates, the group draw and the possibility of having qualification rounds were agreed upon. We leave it up to the local organizer to send the invitations and all relevant information.
For 2017 we also talked about possible candidates and locations for the European Ranking tournaments. These negotiations still continue and will be announced in due time. The League decided that the Footvolley season in 2017 will exceptionally start at January 1st of 2017 instead of April 1st. This in order to start the season 2017 with an indoor European Ranking tournament.
And finally we shared our thoughts about many Footvolley development projects. Our prime mission remains to make footvolley more known and widely available to young and old, male and female. Amongst the projects that were presented the League will investigate the possibility of lowering the net down to 215 cm. Players and organizers in all member nations will be questioned and practical tests will be conducted before we will take a vote.
The next EFVL meeting will take place in October 2016.
