We are happy to announce the inclusion of Sweden as a new member of the European Footvolley League. Sweden becomes the 14th member after a unanimous vote from the other nations.
About footvolley in Sweden 🇸🇪
Sweden is a nordic country with about 10 million people - most of them playing football, tennis or golf. However, footvolley is growing in popularity. Footvolley is mostly played in Malmö and Göteborg which are located in the south west of the country - close to the norwegian and danish border.
Malmö has good access to outdoor courts and an indoor arena with 3 courts for playing in the wintertime. Göteborg has fewer outdoor courts, but probably Europes best indoor arena with 16 courts - Beach Center.
Sweden has both male and female footvolley players and they have participated in a number of European tournaments in the past years. A female team also participated in the exhibition tournament in Rio in 2016.
“Sweden officially becoming a member of the European Footvolley League means a lot. This will put Sweden on the European footvolley map and it will help us promote the sport nationally and locally. We are looking forward to being an active part of the EFVL and the development of footvolley in Europe. ”
Sweden and the European Footvolley Championship (EFC)
With this late addition to the EFVL Sweden has been invited to participate in the qualification tournament being organized the day prior to the first day of the EFC in Graz, Austria. Sweden will also send a female team for the female tournament.
From the podium after the Scandinavian Footvolley Tour final in Malmö in 2013. Spain won with Netherlands on second. James Blondell and Per Ôgren from Sweden came in third.
About the application process
Normal procedure for new EFVL memberships is that all member nations vote yes or no (one nation one vote). This can only happen at our annual meeting at the end of the year. New members will have to present themselves, and if voted Yes they will have to sign the statutes and the ethical code.
However, at the last meeting in Luzern 2017 we were preoccupied with officially founding EFVL under Swiss law. Unfortunately we did not have the time to address the question of new memberships.
Sweden is now the 14th member after a unanimous but online vote, which is an exceptional situation. They have been waiting for 3 years, but the official signing will only take place in November 2018 when all the nations meet at our annual meeting.
Many countries want to be a part of EFVL, and we are eager to include more. In addition to the application from Sweden we have interest from 8 more countries. Our administration department is looking into all of them and an important criteria is the footvolley culture in each country. Is there a footvolley history. Are they organized and how. Is there a national ranking open to all. Other criteria involved in the decision-making: geographical factors, safety of players and ambassadors, easy to travel and other practical matters. We also need to decide if a new member is an asset to the EFVL.
We will release another new member nation shortly. Stay tuned.