On Monday April 4th the global footvolley community worldwide received exciting news.
The Brazilian Senator and great ambassador for our beloved sport, Romario Faria, posted a message stating:
“We will have Footvolley during the Olympics and Paralympics this year. But please remain calm. It will be more of a cultural event and not an official competition. Nevertheless it will be an excellent opportunity to present Footvolley to the world.”
The photo shows seven men standing side by side. At the center, profile Romario and Nuzman.
Romario and several Brazilian Footvolley representatives had a meeting with the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman. They received confirmation that a Footvolley event will take place from 25-28 August. In the spirit of the Olympics there will be games for men, women and under 20.
The Olympic Games will be held 5-21 August 2016 and the Paralympics will be held 7-18 September. That means that the tournament will be held in the period between the Olympics and the Paralympics in the main Beach Volleyball arena. More meetings will follow to determine all the details.
The role of EFVL
The news was released on April 4th and we already have EFVL ambassadors present in Rio to meet with the various stakeholders and offer support as necessary. The first impression is that everybody has a lot of questions. In fact, the people involved are swamped with questions from all over the world. Therefore we would like to ask everybody to be patient.
A question everybody is asking is which teams will play in this tournament? This, of course, has not yet been decided but the EFVL will elaborate on this matter as soon as we know more.
We are all thrilled to see that things are happening and it will help promote the sport we ♥. The visibility of such an event would be a blessing to our sport. But first and foremost we need to build the foundations in each country, get organized and unite as one footvolley community. The EFVL will continue this work regardless of the results of this matter.
More on this topic coming soon...