Africa all set to host the SWATCH FIVB World Tour event – Beach Volleyball news
The final event of the men’s 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour is set to take place in Agadir, Morocco from October 4 to 9. The international beach volleyball event is returning to African beaches after a long break of six years. Cape Town, South Africa hosted
the last SWATCH FIVB beach volleyball event in 2005, when the American duo of Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh and Marcio Araujo/Fabio of Brazil clinched success in the female and male categories, respectively. The 2011 Morocco Open will feature only men’s matches
and it will put an end to men’s tournaments on the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour.
The President of Morocco Volleyball Federation, Mr Abdelhadi Ghzali, stated that it is a dream come true to organise such a big event which will be very helpful in the promotion of beach volleyball in Morocco and the continent of Africa. African is becoming
a hotbed of beach volleyball as it has 3500 kilometres of beaches and 300 sunny days a year on average.
In the past, Morocco has held three FIVB beach volleyball events which were all satellite tournaments in Casablanca from 2004 to 2005, while South Africa is the only other African country which had the unique opportunity to host Tour events in 1995, 2004
and 2005 in Cape Town and in Durban in 1996.
Moroccan Volleyball Federation is keen on promoting the event and around 30.000 flyers have been distributed across the region while 120 street banners and 3,000 posters have been used around the host city in order to create awareness about the event. Moreover,
the host television broadcaster and the Ministry of Sports are actively involved and dedicated towards making this tournament successful.
"I'm absolutely delighted that the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour is returning to Africa, and doubly excited that Morocco is hosting the event. Although Cape Town has hosted events in the past, this will be the first time the World Tour travels
to the north of the continent, and with Agadir a popular destination for tourists, we're sure crowds will flock to the event,” said the tournament promoter, Allam Abderrazek
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