CEV President praises French Volleyball family for their outstanding achievements

CEV President Roko Sikirić joined FIVB President Fabio Azevedo earlier this weekend to address as many as 110 members of the French Volleyball family who had come together for the FFVolley General Assembly held in Juan-les-Pins. The presence of the highest authorities in world and European Volleyball represents an acknowledgment of the FFVolley’s relevance to the global Volleyball movement and did also send out a clear message of unity and cohesion in the efforts that are being made to grow the game. 

The CEV President expressed his admiration and respect for what French Volleyball has achieved – especially their ability to retain the men’s Olympic title on home soil last year in Paris, a truly unprecedented and remarkable feat, even more so knowing that Les Bleus had to cope with enormous pressure and high expectations following their success in Tokyo three years earlier. He also emphasised that the future looks incredibly bright, since France completed last year a clean sweep of all European age-group titles across the men’s U18, U20, and U22 divisions, while women’s Volleyball continues to grow exponentially following their sixth place finish at EuroVolley 2023 and their Volleyball Nations League debut in 2024. 

Mr Sikirić stressed that the CEV will continue to support the French Volleyball family in all of their current and future endeavours and was left especially impressed by the data shared by FFVolley President Eric Tanguy about a record-breaking budget and a truly impressive number of licensed players, which currently stands at some 230,000, an all-time record, just as the number of affiliated clubs (1,413). 

FIVB President Fabio Azevedo had an engaging dialogue with the attendees while sharing his vision for the further development of Volleyball across the globe, with the audience including representatives from the French overseas territories in Africa, Oceania and the Americas, thereby accounting for a meeting that had a truly global side and flavour to it.    

The CEV and FFVolley will continue to work closely together to grow the game, with a major joint project coming up soon – since Paris will be hosting this year’s CEV General Assembly in early November for an eagerly anticipated get-together of all key stakeholders from across Europe in the City of Light.