FIVB open bids for 2023 World Age Championship

• CAVB to reschedule qualifiers’ event

Following the decision by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) to open the bidding process for nations to host the Volleyball Age Group World Championships 2023, the Confederations of African Volleyball (CAVB) have reopened applications for the 2022 CAV Age Group Competition.

FIVB noted that the timeframe for the bidding process spans from 1 July to 31 August 2023. In a statement, the world volleyball governing body stated that the sport has gained so much prominence among volleyball loving countries to the level that it resulted in the higher viewership in the 2021 event.

FIVB also realigned the category for the world event in 2023 to Girls’ U19, Boys’ U19, Women’s U21 and Men’s U21 Volleyball World Championships. “The Age Group Volleyball World Championships are important for the development of athletes and their sports careers as they provide opportunities to experience international competitions,” FIVB President Dr Ary Graça said.

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“These events also allow for new and developing nations to host major FIVB events and bring incredible volleyball action to their communities. “With quality TV production taken care of by the FIVB, we have been pleased with interest from fans in the age-group competitions across the previous editions of the events. “We will continue to invest in these events to showcase the best of our sport’s rising stars,” he added.

Accordingly, CAVB realigning and readjusting the age category of the competitors to meet the FIVB amendments, stressed that the approved categories’ birth dates should be on or after 1 January 2005 for Under 19 while the Under 21’s spotted on or after 1 January 2003.

CAVB disclosed that the 2022 African Youth Games (AYG), which had been slated for 26th August to 6th September 2022 in Cairo, Egypt, to determine the qualifiers to the FIVB 2023 World Championships for Youth Boys and Girls, may be moved to a later date and venue.

“This, therefore, means that all the Zonal Qualifiers for the 2022 African Youth Games may have to be delayed until a new host and dates for the Youth Games are determined,” CAVB said. “Given these developments, CAVB has reopened and hereby invites National Federations that are interested in hosting any or several of the Age Group Competitions, to express their interest by filling in and sending the attached Application Forms to CAVB by 6th July 2022.

“We will appreciate it if interested National Federations indicated the proposed dates between August and November 2022 during which they find suitable to host the event(s), while taking into consideration that we shall need between nine (9) and thirteen (13) days for each event.

“The actual competition days will eventually be determined based on the number of teams that will register for the respective events,” the statement added.