BVA-News


	The 2009 General Assembly in Sarajevo Summer of Volleyball in Serbia Serbia celebrated in Belgrade the "Summer of Volleyball 2009", a volleyball festival organized by the Serbian Federation, to praise and honor all national teams’ members, players and officials, who participated in the world biggest volleyball events and contributed in winning 12 medals up to this moment (2 gold, 9 silver and 1 bronze). The gathering was attended by 112 players and 43 staff members, who were greeted by the SVF and FIVB Executive Vice President Mr. Aleksandar Boricic, the Federation's Board of Administration and officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and sponsors. This year, Serbian Women’s Teams won 2 gold and 4 silver medals, including the title of the inaugural CEV European League and the 2nd place in the Youth World Championships. The Men’s Teams won 4 silver medals and 1 bronze. among them the silver in the FIVB World League and the Youth Boys European Championships. Serbian players also were awarded with 16 individual awards and the Serbian National Teams played 97 matches between January 1 and August 1, against 41 teams in 14 different countries. Technical Committee Meeting The Technical Committee members in the BVA Office, in Thessaloniki (Photo: Zacharias Nikolaidis, BVA) The Technical Committee of the BVA held its annual meeting on Saturday, April 11, in the BVA offices in Thessaloniki (Greece). Eight out of nine members of the Committee were present and made their decisions about the 2009 Balkan competitions, including the drawing of lots for the national team tournaments (The drawing of lots for the BVA Clubs Cup will be held on June 26 in Vienna, during the CEV annual meeting). The TC decided that, upon approval of the National Federations, the age limits of the 2009 competitions should be modified as following: Junior Men born 1989 and afterwards, Junior Women born 1990 and afterwards, Youth Boys born 1991 and afterwards and Youth Girls born 1992 and afterwards. About the new libero regulation, it was decided that the number of the players of the national teams, participating in the 2009 BVA competitions, will remain 12 including the libero player (11 plus 1). If the FIVB decides something different until 10 days before the start of the first BVA tournament, then it will be applied to the BVA competitions. According the decisions of the last BVA General Assembly, every city hosting a BVA competition for National Teams, must also provided a training hall to the participating teams. Starting from 2009, each BVA competition (except from the BVA Clubs Cup) will have two Technical Delegates, the neutral one, designated by the FIVB and a local one. The 2009 competitions will be held as following: JUNIOR MEN (July 15-19 in Danilovgrad/MNE): GROUP A: Serbia, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina. GROUP B: Greece, Bulgaria, Romania. GROUP C: Moldavia, FYROM, Turkey, Montenegro. JUNIOR WOMEN (July 1-5 in GRE/host city tbd): GROUP A: Serbia, Montenegro, Moldavia. GROUP B: Bulgaria, FYROM, Turkey. GROUP C: Albania, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Greece. YOUTH BOYS (July 22-26 in Kazanlak/BUL): GROUP A: Serbia, Albania, Greece. GROUP B: Turkey, Montenegro, Moldavia. GROUP C: FYROM, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria. YOUTH GIRLS (June 22-26 in Sarajevo/BIH): GROUP A: Turkey, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, FYROM. GROUP B: Serbia, Moldavia, Albania. GROUP C: Bulgaria, Romania, Greece. BEACH VOLLEY: The exact dates and host cities of the Beach Volley competitions will be confirmed in the next days. The organizing countries are Albania (Senior M&W), Turkey (U23) and Greece (U20). * The following delegates were present in the 2009 Technical Committee meeting: BVA: Achilleas Mavromatis (BVA Secretary General, Greece) TC PRESIDENT: Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia) TC MEMBERS: Viorel Manole (Romania), Stanislav Nikolov (Bulgaria), Eleni Zetou (Greece). BEACH VOLLEY TC MEMBERS: Tosho Stoyanov (Bulgaria), George Gagalis (Greece), Entoni Jubani (Albania), Ivan Vladisavljevic (Serbia). Michalis Mastrandreas passes away The FIVB and the CEV, along with the whole Greek and European volleyball family, mourned the death of Mr. Michalis Mastrandreas, former President of the European Volleyball Confederation as well as of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation, who passed away on Friday, February 27, in Athens, aged 84. Born on May 23, 1925, in Egypt, Mr. Mastrandreas had later moved to Libya where he became a prominent businessman. In 1970 he came back to Greece and there he was named Vice President of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation until 1972. In 1975 he was elected President of that same Federation and during his presidency volleyball became one of the most popular sports in the country and the national teams enjoyed many successes in international competitions. From 1976 until 1995 he served as Member of the Executive Committee, Treasurer and, finally, as President of the CEV, being at the same time also FIVB Vice President and Member of the Greek Olympic Committee. In 1984 he headed the Greek delegation at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Back in 1993 he handed over the presidency of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation to Mr. Thanassis Beligratis and in 2004 he was named Honorary President of the CEV as well as of the Greek Federation. Until his last days he frequently attended volleyball matches in Athens and spent time in his beloved island of Kassos. His loss was received with deep sadness among all volleyball friends and his funeral was held on March 3, in Athens and was followed by hundreds of Greek volleyball people. The FIVB and CEV expressed their sincere and deepest condolences to both the family of Mr. Mastrandreas as well as the entire Greek volleyball family. New President of the Albanian Federation Mr. Ibrahim Aksoy was elected as the new President of the Albanian Volleyball Federation, during the General Assembly which followed the departure of former President Mr. Gjergj Leqejza. The vacant set of the board was handed over to former minister Mr. Njazi Kosovrasti. The 2008 General Assembly in Orestiada (Photos by Zisis Kiriakidis, Orestiada) The 2008 General Assembly of the BVA was held in Orestiada (Greece), on Saturday December 13 and was attended by the CEV Vice-President Mr. Jan Hronek and the new President of the Greek Federation, Mr. Stelios Prosalikas. The Assembly marked a successful decade of the Association in the same city where its inaugural Assembly was held, back in 1998. Mr. Hronek expressed the satisfaction of the CEV about the activities and the work done by the BVA and, together with the BVA President Mr. Dancho Lazarov, presented the Mayor of Orestiada, Mr. Dimitrios Mouzas, with commemorative gifts. Mr. Milutin Popovic, the President of the Bosnia & Herzegovina Volleyball Federation, was elected BVA President for 2009, Mr. Artur Romashcan from Moldavia was elected as the new Vice President and Mr. Achilleas Mavromatis will continue as Secretary General for the next three years. Furthermore, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic from Serbia was named President of the Technical Commission, following the resignation of Mr. Periklis Bakodimos (Greece). In his letter Mr. Bakodimos thanked all the member countries of the BVA and the Technical Committee for their support and cooperation. Also, the FIVB Vice President and President of the Serbian Federation, Mr. Aleksandar Boricic, thanked the ex President of the Greek Federation, Mr. Thanasis Beligratis, for his contribution to the BVA in the past decade. Presidents and representatives of 7 out of 10 member countries of the Balkan Association attended the Assembly in the Greek city. The outgoing President Mr. Dancho Lazarov and the Secretary General Mr. Mavromatis presented the activity report of the 2008 season. The BVA members approved the organizers of the 2009 BVA competitions and decided to continue the BVA Cup for clubs with the same format. The most important decisions of the General Assembly are: Balkan Championships - Minimum participation required for a tournament to be organized is 6 teams. - By March 31, 2009 each country must confirm in written the participation in all competitions for 2009. - Two Technical Delegates shall be nominated in each competition, one neutral and one from the organizing national federation. They will both receive 50 euros per day, paid by the host national federation. Each federation must propose to BVA by March 31, 2009 at least two persons to act as Technical Delegates for 2009. - All organizers of 2009 competitions must reassure the availability of a training hall in the venue of the competition to be used by the participating teams. Beach Volleyball Championships - All BVA member federations must obligatorily participate with one men and one women team in each beach volleyball competition. - Minimum participation required for a tournament to be organized is 10 teams from 6 countries. - Each Federation has the right to participate with 2 teams and the organizing Federation can participate with up to 4 teams if there are less than 16 participants in order to achieve or approach this number. BVA Cup - The competition will be organized in the period September - October 2009. - Every federation may participate with one men and one women team. These teams must not be eligible to participate in CEV European Cups of the season 2009-2010. Each federation may decide freely which teams to participate among those not eligible for European Cups and must inform BVA Secretariat about its criteria before the meeting of the Technical Commission. - The confirmation of participation of the qualified teams should be done by June 15, 2009 through the respective National Federation, which will also be responsible for their participation. - The competition method will be two or three tournaments of four or three teams each, in men respectively women, organized at the same weekend, and one final four tournament in another weekend, at least two weeks later. Dates for men and women competition may not be the same in order not to coincide with the respective Senior European Championships (Men and Women). - The drawing of lots for the composition of pools will be held in Vienna on June 26, 2009, during the annual meeting of CEV. Responsible for the drawing of lots will be the BVA Technical Commission President with the support of the BVA General Secretary. - Organizers of pools with three teams must arrange to have a day off for their team on the second day, enabling the visiting teams, one to arrive later and the other to leave earlier. - All players having the right to participate with their team in the national championship of their country may be eligible to play in the Balkan Cup provided that they are included in a form signed by the club and the respective national federation. - Each participating team must be accompanied by a referee appointed by the respective national federation. His/her travel costs will be covered by the club they travel with, while his accommodation will be covered by the organizer. - In all BVA Cup pools a neutral Technical Delegate will be nominated, who will receive 50 euros per day by the organizing club. His/her travel costs will be covered by the club of his/her federation of origin, while his accommodation will be covered by the organizer. General - In all BVA 2009 competitions the new regulations will be applied, including the one for the 2 libero players. The only exception will be regarding the total number of players of each team, which will remain 12. - In all 2009 competitions the organizer must reassure the existence of at least one banner with the logo of BVA including the CEV corporate logo and one with the name of the competition in order to increase the visibility of the competitions and the corporate identity of the BVA. All Technical Delegates will have the power to impose the application of this decision. 2009 Competitions Allocation Junior Men: Montenegro (host city tbd) Junior Women: Greece (host city tbd) Youth Men: Bulgaria (Kazanlak) Youth Women: Bosnia & Herzegovina (Sarajevo) BV Men & Women: Albania (Pogradec or Vlora) BV U23: Turkey (Izmir) BV U20: Greece (Thessaloniki area) Moldavia will host the 2009 meeting of the Technical Commission in Chisinau and Bosnia & Herzegovina the 2009 General Assembly in Sarajevo. The following delegates were present in the 2008 General Assembly: CEV: Jan Hronek (Vice President) LOCAL ORGANIZER: Athinodoros Hadjipanagiotou BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: Milutin Popovic (President), Ivo Matic (Member), Zdenko Cubel (Member) BULGARIA: Dancho Lazarov (President), Ivan Todorov (Exec. Secretary), Stanislav Nikoloc (Tech. Director) GREECE: Stelios Prosalikas (President), Achilleas Mavromatis (BVA Secretary General), Eleni Zetou (Vice President) MOLDAVIA: Artur Romashcan (Vice President), Alexandru Stratan (Member) ROMANIA: Angelus Cotoanta (Member) SERBIA: Aleksandar Boricic (President), Goran Jovanovic (Member) TURKEY: Selahuttin Sahin (Vice President), Nilufer Shimonsky (Member) Previous BVA General Assemblies & Meetings 2008: Technical Committee Meeting in Belgrade 2007: General Assembly in Sofia 2007: Technical Committee Meeting in Bucharest 2006: General Assembly in Skopje 2006: Technical Committee Meeting in Sofia 2005: General Assembly in Tirana 2005: Technical Committee Meeting in Thessaloniki