The goodwill tour of FIVB President Jizhong Wei – Volleyball News
Mr. Jizhong Wei, the President of Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB), has been out on a goodwill tour in Japan for the past several days. He visited various sites of the FIVB Volleyball World Cup Japan 2011 and met with local organisers. The women’s
edition ran from November 4-18 and six Japanese cities provided the backdrop for the round robin matches. President Wei stayed in all cities and checked the sites and arrangements for matches.
During the first round of the championship, he made stops in both Nagano and Hiroshima. Then he went to Hiroshima and Toyama in the second round, followed by Sapporo and Okayama in the third round. The final round of the 2011 FIVB Women’s World Cup was hosted
by two venues in Tokyo. President Wei also visited both sites during the final round of the tournament.
After the successful completion of the women’s edition of the World Cup, the men’s competition took centre stage on November 20th. President Wei travelled to Nagoya first and then paid a visit to Kagoshima. These two cities had the privilege of hosting the
first round of the 2011 FIVB Men’s World Cup. Next up, cities of the Kumamoto and Osaka set up the field of play for the second round matches. The FIVB President watched the matches of Group 1 on Thursday in Kumamoto and travelled to Osaka on Friday for Group
2 matches.
Third round of the men’s world cup is yet to start and teams will return to action on November 27. Japanese cities of Fukuoka and Hamamatsu will be the home of action in the third round and President Wei is scheduled to visit both cities. Finally, Mr Wei's
tour will be finished after visiting Tokyo for four round matches.
So far, the president’s tour has been very successful. He has been impressed with the attendance of spectators at the sites, especially the Site B locations without local favourites Japan taking to the court. He witnessed large crowd, particularly school
children, coming to see the matches.
He expressed his views in this regard: “I find important the organising of the school boys and school girls attending the matches. By attending the matches, this may excite them to play volleyball. With Japan playing, fans will come to watch them. But it
is good to see the school children and other fans come to watch volleyball without Japan playing. Here they have full spectators.”
The FIVB first executive vice-president and President of Control Committee FIVB World Cup, Mr Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, also confirmed that Mr Wei was very satisfied with the fan support in the matches. He further added that it is great to see the enthusiasm
of the crowd cheering on teams from other countries, along with engaging so many young fans with our sport.
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