Volleyball, whose governing body now has one of the highest levels of international affiliation among world sports, will elect a new president today in Anaheim, California.
However, the Caribbean members of the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) group are likely to be split down the middle in support of two of the three candidates.
With a record 210 nations attending the 33rd FIVB Congress, the Caribbean countries, including the OECS group, were openly asked by NORCECA?president Cristobal Marte to support Dr Ary Graca, a FIVB executive vice-president and president of the South American Volleyball Confederation and the Brazil Volleyball Federation.
Such support would ironically ignore the campaign of USA Volleyball president Doug Beal, who is a member of FIVB’s board of administration and is a fellow NORCECA member. He was also a gold medal coach of the United States team.
The other candidate is the outspoken Australian Chris Schacht, who in the past was often the lone voice speaking out about FIVB’s uneven distribution of assistance to countries.
The current president Jizhong Wei of China dramatically took over in Dubai in 2008 when Dr Ruben Acosta gave up the post after ruling since 1984.
In spite of what was often regarded as a dictatorial style, Acosta had moved the organization from having an account of $100 000 to one of over $100 million when he vacated the presidency.
Acosta’s introduction of the rally game, the libero, the three-ball system, technical timeouts, and a host of innovations had moved volleyball to being more telegenic and had seen a tremendous rise in interest from spectators and sponsors.
However, when the affable Wei took over he started to distribute the accumulated wealth and equipment among the struggling nations, often proclaiming that FIVB funds were for its membership countries and not for the executive.
Barbados is represented at the congress by president John Griffith and first vice-president Kenmore Bynoe. (KB)
