General Assembly

Minutes

XXXIX GENERAL ASSEMBLY

MINUTES

Place: Hotel Paradisus, Cancún (MEX)

Date(s): Wednesday, 14 November 2018

RECORD OF ATTENDANCE A. CEV Board of Administration ...... 3 B. Internal auditors ...... 3 C. Special guests ...... 3 D. Delegates of the affiliated National Federations ...... 4 E. Interpreters ...... 4 F. CEV Office ...... 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXIX General Assembly ...... 6 1.1 Welcome Speech by the CEV President, Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ ...... 6 2. Setting up of the XXXIX General Assembly's Office ...... 6 2.1 Record of Attendance ...... 6 2.2 Confirmation of the Appointment of the Credentials Committee ...... 7 2.3 Report of the Credentials Committee ...... 7 3. Official Opening of the XXXIX General Assembly...... 7 4. Approval of the Agenda ...... 7 5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVIII General Assembly held in Kraków (POL) ...... 7 6. FIVB President’s Address ...... 8 7. CEV President’s Address ...... 8 8. Financial Report ...... 11 8.1 Accounts 2017 ...... 11 8.2 External Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2017 ...... 11 8.3 Internal Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2017 ...... 11 8.4 Approval of Accounts 2017 ...... 11 8.5 Updated 2018 Budget and 2019 Budget Proposal ...... 12 8.6 Approval of 2019 Budget Proposal ...... 13 9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook ...... 13 9.1 Activity Reports ...... 13 9.2 Comments and Questions ...... 13 9.3 Confirmation of Reports ...... 13 10. Re-branding of European ...... 13 11. Best Practice by National Federations ...... 14 11.1 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball in (Gernot Leitner, AUT NF President) ...... 14 11.2 Unique event concept: 2018 CEV DELA Beach Volleyball European Championship, 2018 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship and 2018 World Championship in The (Michel Everaert, NED NF Secretary General) ...... 15 11.3 Spectator’s attendance & Popularity of the Sport (Pasi Sydänlammi, FIN NF President)...... 16 12. Future Projects ...... 16 12.1 2019 EuroVolley events (FRA, SLO, NED, BEL & TUR, POL, HUN, SVK) ...... 16 12.2 2019 EuroBeachVolley (RUS) ...... 17 12.3 2021 EuroVolley ...... 17 12.4 Special Projects Commission: Coaches Convention (Philippe BLAIN, ECOC President) ...... 18 12.5 School Project (Hanno Pevkur, CEV Vice-President in charge of Development Activities/ Vuk Karanovic, Development Manager) ...... 18 12.6 Digital approach & new website (Federico Ferraro, Press Officer) ...... 20 13. Proposals from National Federations ...... 21 15. XL CEV General Assembly ...... 22 16. Miscellaneous ...... 22 17. Closing Speech of the CEV President ...... 22 18. Annexes ...... 23

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Attendance List

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ CEV President M. Renato ARENA Senior Vice-President Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL Vice-President & Treasurer Mr Lubor HALANDA Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Mr Maris PEKALIS Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Mr Hanno PEVKUR Vice-President in charge of Development Activities Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING Vice-President Mr Stanislav SHEVCHENKO Vice-President Mr Eric ADLER CEV BOA Member Mr Zdeslav BARAČ CEV BOA Member Mr Michel EVERAERT CEV BOA Member Mr Peter KLEINMANN CEV BOA Member Mr Dancho LAZAROV CEV BOA Member Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI CEV BOA Member Mr Gudmundur Helgi THORSTEINSSON CEV BOA Member

Mr Dr. Ary S. Graça Filho FIVB President Mr Dr Bin NASSER AVC President Mr Dr Amr M. ELWANI CAVB President Mr Lic. Cristobal MARTE HOFFIZ NORCECA President

Mr Roman STANISLAVOV ECC President Mr Wojciech CZAYKA ESOC President Mr Alain FISCHBACHER ELC President Mr Luciano GASPARI ERC President Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE EMC President Mr Philippe BLAIN ECOC President Mr CEV Athletes’ Working Group President

Mr Michel HENNO CEV Auditor

Mr Fabio AZEVEDO FIVB General Director

ALBANIA ALB Erlind PELLUMBI Albens Vokopola ANDORRA AND Proxy to ESP ARMENIA ARM Not attending AUSTRIA AUT Gernot LEITNER Philipp SEEL AZERBAIJAN AZE Proxy to RUS BEL Guy JUWET BOSNIA- BIH Alija FATIĆ Milutin POPOVIC HERZEGOVINA BELARUS BLR Barys TSYPORYN Willy BRUNINX BUL Evgeni IVANOV CRO Ante BAKOVIĆ Valentina BIFFLIN KOLJNREKAJ CYPRUS CYP Michalis KRASHIAS Linos PETRIDES CZE Marek PAKOSTA Milan LABASTA DEN Erik JACOBSEN Thomas BRO-RASMUSSEN ENGLAND ENG Adam WALKER Janet INMAN

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SPAIN ESP Luis F. MUCHAGA EST Helen VEERMÄE FAROE ISLANDS FAR Magnus TAUSEN Niclas JOENSEN FIN Pasi SYDÄNLAMMI Keijo SÄILYNOJA FRA Eric TANGUY GEO Irakli CHACHUA GER René HECHT Jörg ZIEGLER GIBRALTAR GIB Emma LABRADOR Juany GOMEZ GRE Panagiotis SIDERIS Athanasios RERRAS GREENLAND GRL Hans JENSEN HUN Ferenc KOVÁCS Zsolt LUDVIG IRELAND IRL Grainne CULLITON Aidan CURRAN ICELAND ISL Jason ĺVARSSON ISRAEL ISR Eviatar DOTAN Yaniv NOYMAN ITA Pietro Bruno CATTANEO Alberto RABITI KOSOVO KOS Abedin IBRAHIMI LAT Atis SAUSNITIS Inara BROKANE LIECHTENSTEIN LIE Philippe Schurmann LTU Darius ČERKA LUXEMBOURG LUX Norma ZAMBON Torsten SCHOOFF MOLDOVA MDA Alexandru STRATAN Former Y. R. of MKD Petar JOVANOVSKI MACEDONIA MALTA MLT Not attending MONTENEGRO MNE Ivan BOSKOVIC MONACO MON Not attending NETHERLANDS NED Peter SPRENGER NORTHERN NIR Irena MANIK Joanna MCCRORY IRELAND (Ulster) NOR Yngvild LARSEN SCHEI Kristian GJERSTADBERGET POL Jacek KASPRZYK Tomasz KARASINSKI POR Vicente DE ARAÚJO ROU Gheorge VISAN RUS Alexander YAREMENKO SCOTLAND SCO Alexander STEEL SLO Gregor HUMERCA SAN MARINO SMR Federico VALENTINI Marco GATTI SRB Zoran GAJIC Ivan KNEŽEVIĆ SWITZERLAND SUI Nora WILLI SVK Martin KRASCENIC Tomáš SINGER SWE Lennart NEOVIUS Martin KIHLSTRÖM TUR Ayse Nihan SALKAYA Nihal ISCI UKR Mykhaylo MELNYK WALES WAL Sandra STOLL

Zonal Association Patrick MURPHY SCD Secretary General

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Mr Michael ROBINSON Alphabet

Interpreter Eugenia DE PAOLIS ITALY Interpreter Janis SAUSNITIS LATVIA Interpreter Roland OSVALD SLOVAKIA

Moderator Julius BRINK CEV General Assembly Moderator

CEV Office Thorsten ENDRES CEV Managing Director CEV Office Kristin HUEHNEL CEV Administrative Assistant CEV Office Snezana MISIĆ CEV Executive Assistant President's Office CEV Office Federico FERRARO CEV Press Officer CEV Office Vuk KARANOVIĆ CEV Development Manager CEV Office Marc VAN DER ELST CEV IT Manager CEV Office Ricardo LEITE CEV E-Learning & Project Coordinator

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1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXIX General Assembly

1.1 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE CEV PRESIDENT, MR ALEKSANDAR BORIČIĆ

Dear FIVB President Graça, dear Confederation Presidents, dear Delegates and Guests,

Welcome to the CEV Congress in Cancún!

This is a truly historical moment as it is the first time the CEV Congress is held outside of and I hope that we can make historical changes not just to the location of our annual meeting but also beyond. The organisation of the CEV Congress along with the FIVB Congress symbolises the strong bond between the two institutions, the fact that we respect and support each other and there is unity in the Volleyball family.

I would like to warmly welcome and thank FIVB President, Dr Graça, for making it possible for us to organise our General Assemblies together, allowing us to save time and money, money which we can invest in Volleyball activities. I would also like to welcome our colleagues from the other Volleyball Confederations – we are glad you are with us today.

The great results of European Teams at the World Championships, the Volleyball Nations League and FIVB Beach Volleyball events this year speak for themselves. More than 50% of all medals across all events were taken by European Teams. Congratulation to all of them.

I am proud to be the President of the European Volleyball Confederation, not only because of these outstanding sports results. The historical European Congress here in Mexico will not be the only historical news we are sharing with you today. The CEV has changed and we want to keep improving things, for example by investing more money in European Volleyball.

We are looking forward to sharing with you our activities, our ideas and innovations, and we count on your feedback to improve even further. Please take this opportunity to share your ideas with colleagues from other federations, from other continents in order to establish closer bonds and become even stronger in the future.

I wish all of us fruitful discussions and a successful congress for a better future of Volleyball.

Thank you!

2. Setting up of the XXXIX General Assembly's Office

2.1 RECORD OF ATTENDANCE

Mr Julius BRINK, CEV General Assembly Moderator, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the CEV General Assembly as a moderator for the third year in a row and swiftly moved on to the record of attendance.

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2.2 CONFIRMATION OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THE CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE

Mr BRINK announced the four appointed members of the Credentials & Checking Commission:

• Mr Jörg ZIEGLER (GER) - Chairman • Mr Albens VOKOPOLA (ALB) • Mr Philipp SEEL (AUT) • Mr Thorsten SCHOFF (LUX)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the composition of the Credentials & Checking Commission was approved by the General Assembly.

2.3 REPORT OF THE CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE

Mr Jörg ZIEGLER, the Chairman of the Credential Committee, informed the General Assembly that all Credential and Proxy Letters had been verified and that everything was found to be in accordance with the CEV Statutes. There were 53 National Federations registered, with Armenia on the way expected to arrive shortly bringing the number up to 54, including one National Federation without the right to speak or vote, and 4 National Federations validly represented by proxy.

3. Official Opening of the XXXIX General Assembly

Based on the report of the Credential Checking Commission, Mr BORIČIĆ declared the XXXIX CEV General Assembly as officially open.

4. Approval of the Agenda

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the agenda of the XXXIX General Assembly was officially approved.

5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVIII General Assembly held in Kraków (POL)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the minutes of the XXXVIII General Assembly held in Kraków (POL) on 1 September 2017 were officially approved.

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6. FIVB President’s Address

Dr. Ary S. Graça, the FIVB President, greeted everyone and thanked the CEV President and Board of Administration for inviting him to be part of the CEV Congress in Cancún. He reminisced about the time the CEV Management was changing in 2015, when the CEV and the FIVB together decided that it was time to modernise Volleyball and the way it was managed. He praised all the initiatives and the hard work of the CEV during the past three years and was pleased with the collaboration between the FIVB and the CEV, particularly on the FIVB Nucleus Plan the aim of which was to decentralise and enlarge the world of Volleyball. He spoke about countries like Hungary and Romania, which had managed to come back to their previous glory, becoming more active and successful in Volleyball again.

Dr Graça emphasised the importance of giving everyone an equal chance to improve and grow, and he saw a great potential in Europe, potential that could be explored in more depth in the future. He recognised the growing prowess of not only European Volleyball Teams but also National Volleyball Federations which had been changing, modernising the way they manage and promote the sport. He acknowledged the strong link between the FIVB and the CEV whereby the success of the FIVB was to a great extent dependent on the success of the CEV.

The FIVB President went on to say that Europe was the brain of the world in terms of Volleyball, leading others in many different ways and aspects. He admitted that other Volleyball Confederations were far behind in their activities and achievements. He said he was proud to be so close with the CEV, working together on a common plan which was already yielding positive results, and he was honoured to be present at the CEV General Assembly.

7. CEV President’s Address

Dear Members of the CEV,

When I was elected as CEV President along with my colleagues at the CEV Board of Administration, we decided to really work as a team, one Volleyball team. I am happy that we improved communication with many federations, we are always open to receive feedback, to discuss, and I am very proud that we have really started changing. We cannot achieve much individually, but together we can achieve great things.

I am truly grateful for the partnership between the CEV and the FIVB. We have managed to start modernising Volleyball, we share ideas and have many meetings. This partnership is very important and I thank my colleagues at the FIVB, especially the FIVB President, for the great cooperation. This is only the beginning as we have so many more ideas and plans to pursue. As part of the FIVB family, the CEV are very proud that we have had two fantastic organisers in World Championships this year, Italy and Bulgaria, and I would like to congratulate both federations, both Presidents, for the fantastic job they did, increasing the standard for all top Volleyball events to follow. We are very proud that we have two World Champions, Poland and Serbia. Moreover, we are proud that Italy has won the silver medal and that the women of The Netherlands and the men of Serbia were both fourth in the respective championships. Europe is working really hard and we have excellent results.

We improve on the court and also outside of the court. We have changed the format of the Champions League and now every National Champion has the chance to play in the competition. We have changed the Final Four to a semi-final in home & away matches and only one match in the Final for women and men respectively. We are working on new ideas for the Final of the Champions League for both men and women with more marketing and more international exposure. We have a new format of the European League, involving more and more National Federations. We have increased prize money for

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the upcoming EuroVolley events, bringing it up to € 1,500,000. It’s a big investment but we need to work hard for our athletes. We have changed the format of senior European Championships, increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24. Moreover, instead of one or two organisers, we now have up to four. Next year will be historical for European Volleyball because in one moment we will have eight federations, organising the final tournament.

In Beach Volleyball, we used to have Satellite and Master events; now, in cooperation with the FIVB, we organise tournaments with stars (1, 2, 3 stars). We organised the Beach World Championship in Austria, and a fantastic European Championship in the Netherlands.

Snow Volleyball is new and fresh, and it is exciting. Together with the FIVB, we have invested money in the delivery of the Snow Volleyball Night in PyeongChang during Winter Olympics. Never before have we had so much media around our court, catching the interest of many people. We take it as a good starting point and now we are working with many National Olympic Committees to further promote and grow Snow Volleyball. We organised the first inaugural Snow Volleyball European Championship in Wagrain-Kleinarl (AUT) and it was a highly successful event which we plan to continue organising every two years. We are now trying to take Snow Volleyball to the elite World Economic Forum annually held in Davos (SUI), while the FIVB want to go even further, already talking about organising a Snow Volleyball World Cup and World Championship. The CEV have also now established a Snow Volleyball Working Group, whereas the FIVB Board of Administration have decided to make a Snow Volleyball Commission in order to work very hard to introduce Snow Volleyball to Winter Olympic Games in 2026. This could be the first time in our history that we will have our athletes play both in the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics.

Many of our clubs and some National Federations have had problems with the international calendar and we have managed to rectify some of the issues thanks to our colleagues, the Presidents of Continental Confederations, because they understand that club competitions are important in Europe. Every year we have 200 clubs in our European Cups, and Europe is the only continent with so much activity the whole year round. Therefore, the FIVB have agreed to change the seasons for clubs and National Teams making it more flexible for them to organise competitions during the 12 months, provided that they respect international competitions and do not block foreign players from competing.

Regarding the development of under-age categories, we have increase support from € 25,000 to € 50,000. We will also now have two hosts for under-age Continental Championships. This year Albania organised the CEV U19 European Championships, despite being a category I National Federation, and they did a great job, proving that everything is possible as long as there is open communication and cooperation. They should serve as an example for others to follow in the future.

I am particularly proud of the new concept we have developed together for our annual Volleyball Gala, which this year was held in Budapest. After so many consecutive years of successful organisations in Vienna, we decided to alternate this prestigious event among the beautiful and historical cities of Europe. In an aim to show the variety and capacity of our National Federations, we started in 2016 with Rome, the Eternal city, and last year we were hosted by the amazing Russian capital . This year in Budapest, we also launched our new logo, marking the beginning of a new digital era in European Volleyball.

The FIVB Nucleus Project in Europe means that we need to be much more active in the biggest market in Europe – i.e. in Germany, France, and England. In the framework of the project, I am delighted to inform you that we have just signed a contract with Eurosport for the next two years. We invite you to cooperate with our office in Luxembourg to find out more and provide your input. We will have a weekly slot, prime time, to show our competitions and we have the possibility to show stories of our stars and further promote our beloved sport in all our federations all year long.

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As regards our media partners, the cooperation with Infront and Sportradar has not been easy but we have managed to negotiate some improvements in the current contracts. We are just about to launch our first OTT platform in cooperation with Sportradar. Moreover, the CEV Board of Administration has also approved the proposal to only enter into agreements that do contain provisions for more modifications. Moreover, any such long-term agreement should be ratified by the General Assembly before entering into force. We need to make sure that the companies we sign contracts with will work for us and that the benefits and rights are more balanced and mutual. In the light of this, we have become more cautious and more demanding of the partnerships we enter as Volleyball has a great potential that has not yet been fully recognised.

We have started cooperation with the European Union and have received support of € 360,000 in the framework of the Erasmus+ project for our development activities. Moreover, we want one million balls for European children, therefore we are renegotiating our contract with Mikasa, who are here with us today and we truly appreciate the cooperation with them. Following our meeting in Japan, we are looking forward to continuing the discussions with them here in Cancún to make them part of this ambitious project which is already generating a lot of interest from many of our federations. In addition, we are planning the first ever coaches convention next year, to give for coaches/teachers of under-age categories the chance to learn more and exchange best practices.

We are very proud of the many changes accomplished and the investment we have made and I hope that together we can make much bigger value not only on national territories. The CEV must be truly international – only then can we generate more income and invest it in our sport.

I would like to sincerely thank all National Federations for cooperation and hard work – it is appreciated. We are doing better but we must still improve. We need to change the way we have been doing things for many years if we wish to raise the status of our sport.

The CEV headquarters in Luxembourg have undergone many changes, growing in the number of employees, but especially turning into a service provider that functions around the clock for the benefit of all involved.

However, changes cannot come from our side only. Therefore, I encourage you all to come forward with ideas and proposals that can help us increase Volleyball activities in Europe as well as at the national level – and to exchange this information and your ideas with colleagues from other National Federations so that we can benefit from one another’s know how and best practices.

I would like to thank my colleagues from the Executive Committee and Board of Administration. Thank you for your great support, for the many open discussions, for your ideas, and for the decisions we make and respect together.

Thank you to all Commissions and Working Groups as well as to our staff working in and Luxembourg. Without all of you, CEV is nothing. You are needed and you make the difference! Please, do not get tired of pushing our sport forward. Let us continue the exciting journey we started together in 2015 and work hard as a team for the good of our beloved sport!

Thank you!

Aleksandar BORIČIĆ CEV President

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8. Financial Report

8.1 ACCOUNTS 2017

Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL, CEV Vice-President and Treasurer, presented a short summary of the CEV Accounts 2017. He noted that the CEV finalised 2017 with the positive result of € 915,218. He referred everyone to the relevant section in the 2018 CEV Congress Handbook

8.2 EXTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2017

As laid down in the CEV Statutes and Luxembourg's legislation, the 2016 CEV accounts were also subject to an external audit by the company Grant Thornton Lux Audit SA.

The written external audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.3 INTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2017

As laid down in the CEV Statutes, the 2016 CEV Accounts were subject to an internal audit by Mr Michel HENNO and Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ, CEV Internal Auditors.

Mr HENNO highlighted the following points of the report:

• The operating profit amounted to € 915,218 • CEV received an amount of € 350,000 from the FIVB for the activities related to the new FIVB strategy • Major software problem caused the delay in sending many invoices at the end of 2017, therefore the receivable amounted to more than € 2,197,000 • Internal Auditors advised using a stricter communication system on the invoices in order to get a clearer financial situation • The CEV received information about the financial policy guidelines and instructions for the office to strictly follow the laws of Luxembourg.

Considering the above remarks, Mr HENNO confirmed that the CEV were working correctly according to legal and organic requirements.

The written internal audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.4 APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTS 2017

Mr HENNO asked the General Assembly to approve the Accounts 2017 and to relieve those in charge.

DECISION In the absence of any other questions or remarks, the 2017 CEV Accounts and Reports were approved by the General Assembly and those in charge were relieved.

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8.5 UPDATED 2018 BUDGET AND 2019 BUDGET PROPOSAL

Mr MUTLUGIL referred to charts presenting investment and revenue figures in 2018 and 2019, noting that first investment increase was in the Prize Money, especially in the Champions League. He compared the figures of 2018 with those of 2016 and 2017 and pointed out the fact that the increase was of roughly 49%, i.e. € 925,000. The proposal for 2019 was to further increase by € 726,000, amounting to a total increase of 88% in Champions League Prize Money. As regards investment in CEV Cup and Challenge Cup, there was a slight increase, whereas in European Championships and European League there was a significant increase, the latter amounting to nearly € 1,000,000.

The CEV Treasurer highlighted the following investment items in Volleyball events, promotion and communication:

• Social media activities • Rebranding of the CEV corporate identity (new logo) • New design and structure of CEV website • Support for co-organising National Federations • TV production • Seminars • Champions League Forum • Promotional activities • Support for the travel costs and per diem of referees for Golden and Silver European League • Snow Volleyball promotion • Development activities.

As regards development activities, Mr MUTLUGIL mentioned the following:

• Support for National Federations organising and participating in under-age events • Financial support for Zonal Associations • Sport structure, aid and education programmes • Extraordinary development support for NF category I and II • Special fund for coaches • School project • Education and e-learning • Coaches Convention.

Before asking for the approval of the 2018 Budget and 2019 Budget Proposal, Mr MUTLUGIL referred to the revenue items, and indicated the following trends:

• Starting with 2018, the FIVB no longer contributes financially to the Confederations • Ongoing income from ITCs • Champions League and Cups participation fees and inscriptions – change of the competition format and introduction of equality between the men and women teams • European Championship organiser fees – aiming to increase the fees based on the cooperation with local authorities • Marketing and TV rights – ongoing contracts with Mikasa, Sberbank, Infront, SportRadar • Looking for potential sponsors and partners.

The Financial Report presentation, including Accounts 2017 as well as Updated Budget 2018 and Budget Proposal 2019 can be found annexed to these minutes.

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8.6 APPROVAL OF 2019 BUDGET PROPOSAL

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the updated 2018 budget & the proposed 2019 Budget were unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook

9.1 ACTIVITY REPORTS

Mr BRINK referred to the 2018 CEV Congress Handbook, which contained all of the Activity Reports and had been sent to all National Federations prior to the CEV General Assembly.

9.2 COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

Mr BRINK informed the General Assembly that there had been no comments or questions received by the CEV within the feedback deadline.

9.3 CONFIRMATION OF REPORTS

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the 2018 CEV Congress Handbook Activity Reports were unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

10. Re-branding of European Volleyball

Mr BRINK introduced a branding expert, Mr Michael ROBINSON, the Strategy Director of Alphabet, a Manchester-based Design Agency, and invited him to take the floor and present the new logo of the CEV.

Mr ROBINSON thanked the CEV for the invitation to the CEV General Assembly. He mentioned the 2019 EuroVolley Logo Launch event in Budapest two weeks prior to the Congress which had been very positively received. In order to provide some background for the new logo concept, he spoke about the changing digital channels in sports, dynamic content delivered to fans and players, shifting trends and the necessity to be flexible in order to constantly adapt and keep up. He pointed out the fact that sports were constantly competing for investments, for fans, for players, for new people coming in, which was quite hard to keep up with. Nevertheless, he noted that it was time for Volleyball to move forward, to rethink and evolve in order not to stay behind other sports on the market. He saw Volleyball as powerful and very entertaining but in need of a bold move to make itself more attractive and more modern.

Mr ROBINSON said that the Alphabet team, in cooperation with the staff at the CEV Office, had designed the new CEV Logo with players and fans at the very core to symbolise and celebrate progressiveness, inclusivity and togetherness. The starting point and the inspiration for the design came from the flags of the 56 National Federations: the many details, angles and colours. The team worked on combining the individual identities together with the colours of the CEV, producing a new CEV flag,

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a new CEV identity. The bold colours, bold images and photography was to give it a more vibrant look, making it easily recognisable.

Furthermore, Mr ROBINSON demonstrated to the General Assembly the adaptability of the graphic, which made it possible to have various variations for different categories and different events. He used the example of 2019 CEV EuroVolley, which had been launched during the 2018 CEV Volleyball Gala in Budapest two weeks prior to the CEV Congress, where the promotional logo was adapted to symbolise the four host nations, bringing in a colour variation for each host nation – a truly tailored identity incorporating four signature colours. He then briefly mentioned the planned design for the CEV Champions League as well as the Beach and Snow Volleyball European Championship events.

Finally, Mr ROBINSON invited everyone to watch a short video developed by Alphabet explaining the evolution of the new CEV Logo, particularly for the 2019 CEV EuroVolley.

11. Best Practice by National Federations

11.1 2018 CEV SNOW VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP IN AUSTRIA (GERNOT LEITNER, AUT NF PRESIDENT)

Mr Gernot LEITNER, congratulated the CEV on the re-branding, and said he really liked it and was pleased with the changes and the direction. He briefly introduced himself as he had been only recently elected as President of the Austrian Volleyball Federation. Then he spoke about Snow Volleyball, the beginnings of it, its evolution, and the opportunities and possibilities it offered. In his view, the world of winter sports was a multi-billion dollar business worth exploring, and he saw it as a great platform for the further development and promotion of Volleyball. He pointed out the fact that Snow Volleyball could potentially become the first sport discipline to be played in both winter and summer Olympics, raising the interest of many countries which so far could only compete in the summer.

Mr LEITNER enumerated the milestones achieved in Snow Volleyball over the last decade, from the first amateur tournaments in Austria in 2009 to the 2018 CEV European Championship. He mentioned that the Snow Volleyball Department had been created in the Austrian Volleyball Federation back in 2012, followed by the CEV in 2015. The FIVB first opened discussions on the topic in June 2016, reaching a memorandum of understanding for the first World Tour in the future, signed in 2018 in Rio between the main promoter of the Snow Volleyball European Tour and the FIVB.

As regards the success of the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship in Austria, Mr LEITNER commented on the fact that entering touristic resorts of the European Alps had proven the right way to go, and the collaboration with highly professional winter tourism agencies was fantastic and helped bring media attention to the event. Moreover, he noted that it had been broadcast live in Austria and re-live on Eurosport, with about four hours of live coverage and quite decent viewer ratings. Having held the championship on top of a mountain plateau with a fully packed stadium, a huge crowd, lots of snow, après-ski, and fun and leisure industry, all raised the attractiveness of the game.

Mr LEITNER informed the General Assembly that for 2019 the Austrian Volleyball Federation had already fixed with the CEV the stops in Austria for the Snow Volleyball European Tour and that they were also planning to apply to be the first host of the FIVB World Championship in 2021. He finished his presentation, thanking the CEV President for his support. There was then a short video clip showing the milestones and highlights of Snow Volleyball.

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11.2 UNIQUE EVENT CONCEPT: 2018 CEV DELA BEACH VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP, 2018 CEV U20 VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP AND 2018 SITTING VOLLEYBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE NETHERLANDS (MICHEL EVERAERT, NED NF SECRETARY GENERAL)

Mr Michel EVERAERT said he was impressed with the achievements in Snow Volleyball and admired the way the Austrian Volleyball Federation had managed to make the discipline really attractive, making it more and more popular.

Following a short video showcasing some of the greatest moments of the unique event in The Netherlands combining three Olympic disciplines of Volleyball: 2018 CEV DELA Beach Volleyball European Championship, 2018 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship and 2018 Sitting Volleyball World Championship, Mr EVERAERT explained the concept and strategy behind the event. One of the most important points was that the Dutch Volleyball Federation wanted people to experience Volleyball through events as they seemed to have a huge impact not only on the Volleyball community but also on society as such.

He explained how the federation took time to talk to the cities and provinces and to listen to them, finding out that all of them wanted sports and healthy life style, hence e.g. the food programme which enhanced the marketing value of the event. He noted that they took the goals of their partners very seriously, also paying attention to the sometimes hidden implications.

Mr EVERAERT spoke about how the Dutch had been organising many events in recent years, which had been a great learning process. They had managed to gather great numbers of volunteers over the years as well as develop solid working relations with various partners and agencies for the things that were not their daily business, i.e. logistics, marketing, traffic management. Moreover, they collaborated closely with the cities, involving them in the promotion and side events, as well as with sponsors to get their support for the entire organisation. He noted that with so many stakeholders, they all had to be flexible and prepared to yield in and let go of certain ideas and expectations in order to focus on the common goal and push things forward.

As regards the challenges, Mr EVERAERT admitted that because of the magnitude of the event, the Dutch Federation had not been always able to deliver to the expected level and quality. Furthermore, he said that working with so many different partners had presented many a challenge but at the same time it was an interesting experience from which they would take many lessons for the future.

As for achievements, he noted a lot of TV and media attention, including eight days live on the public channel with very good ratings. Moreover, he said that because of the multiple venues used in the cities, the involvement of people was incredible, with kids even playing Volleyball in the streets, which Mr EVERAERT said made him very proud and happy. He specifically pointed out the following numbers:

• 72,800 spectators • Media reach over 200,000,000

Finally, he asked Mr Peter SPRENGER, the President of the Dutch Volleyball Federation, if he thought that the experience was worth repeating, to which he received a very enthusiastic affirmative answer, thereby finishing the presentation.

The Unique event concept 2018 EuroVolley Festival The Netherlands presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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11.3 SPECTATOR’S ATTENDANCE & POPULARITY OF THE SPORT (PASI SYDÄNLAMMI, FIN NF PRESIDENT)

Mr Pasi SYDÄNLAMMI, the President of the Finnish Volleyball Federation, thanked for the opportunity to talk about his country’s experience of bringing Finnish Volleyball fans to matches in Finland and abroad. He noted that there were great fans of Volleyball everywhere in Europe, which contributed to the great atmosphere of Volleyball events and was good for the sport.

He presented the structure of the Finnish Volleyball Association, indicating two important departments:

• Time Travels – a travel agency collaborating with the association on travel arrangements, not just for players and officials but also for fans • Fin Fan Team – the Official Fan Club.

He noted that the interest of Finnish fans started growing after the European Championships in Moscow 11 years back, when around 300 people from Finland travelled to Moscow and followed the games. After that the Finnish Volleyball Team had a growing crowd of fans following them to the various European and World Championships throughout the years. Mr SYDÄNLAMMI mentioned that after each of such events, the Finnish Volleyball Association organised after-parties to give the fans an opportunity to celebrate and mingle with the teams, which was very important for the whole experience. He estimated that about 20,000-30,000 Finnish fans had participated in events in recent years in total.

The Finnish President said he had enjoyed the presentation on the re-branding of European Volleyball and that he thought the topic of Volleyball fans went hand in hand with the rebranding. He stressed the fact that fans were extremely important for the evolution of Volleyball and its image, apart from a broader media coverage, TV, internet, mobile devices, etc. He expressed his hope and wish for more countries to follow suit and join their National Teams on their tours.

The Spectator’s Attendance & Popularity of the Sport presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12. Future Projects

12.1 2019 EUROVOLLEY EVENTS (FRA, SLO, NED, BEL & TUR, POL, HUN, SVK)

Mr BRINK invited the representatives of the four Volleyball Federations organising the 2019 Women’s EuroVolley onto the stage, i.e. Mr Martin KRASCENIC, the President of the Slovak Volleyball Federation, Ms Ayse Nihan Salikaya, a Board Member of the Turkish Volleyball Federation, Mr Tomasz KARASINSKI, the Secretary General of the Polish Volleyball Federation and Mr Ferenc KOVAC, the President of the Hungarian Volleyball Federation.

Mr KRASCENIC spoke on behalf of the four organisers, and said that they were very proud to be organising the European Championship in 2019. He noted that since most of the countries were close neighbours, they were already cooperating intensively, having met in Budapest and Istanbul, and already planning their next meeting in Bratislava. He was confident that the event would be another step forward for Top Volleyball Events, following the example of the FIVB Volleyball World Championships in Italy and Bulgaria, and also in Japan. He invited all to watch a short video presentation promoting the event scheduled in 2019 in Turkey, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

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Afterwards, Mr Brink invited the the four Volleyball Federations organising the 2019 Women’s EuroVolley onto the stage, i.e. Mr Eric TANGUY, the President of the French Volleyball Federation, Mr Gregor HUMERCA, Secretary General of the Slovenian Volleyball Federation, Mr Guy JUWET, the President of the Belgian Volleyball Federation and Mr Peter SPRENGER, the President of the Dutch Volleyball Federation.

Mr TANGUY spoke on behalf of the four organisers, and said that they were very enthusiastic to be organising the European Championship in 2019. He reported about the various activities and the aim to organise a European Event, starting with the DOL in January 2019 in the European Capital Brussels, continuing via Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Ljubljana and finishing in the beautiful French capital Paris. He invited all National Federation to be part of the event, to help promoting it and to visit the matches in the nine cities across the four countries.

The complete 2019 EuroVolley events presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.2 2019 EUROBEACHVOLLEY (RUS)

Mr BRINK invited Mr Stanislav SHEVCHENKO, the President of the Russian Volleyball Federation, onto the stage to speak about the 2019 EuroBeachVolley event in Russia.

Mr SHEVCHENKO thanked the CEV on behalf of the Russian Volleyball Federation for their trust and assistance and said he was confident that with the confirmed support of the mayor of Moscow, Mr Sergey SOBYANIN, the Russian Federation would deliver a truly magnificent Beach Volleyball European Championship in 2019. He then asked Mr Roman STANISLAVOV, Russian Volleyball Federation Associate, to present further details of the event.

Mr STANISLAVOV noted that the city of Moscow had become quite a popular city in terms of the organisation of major sport events, including football, ice-hockey, etc. He referred to the sport arena chosen for the 2019 EuroBeachVolley, Luzhniki Sports Complex, one of the largest sport arenas in the world, and said it was renowned for having hosted a large number of international competitions. Being located in the centre of the city of Moscow, the grounds of the arena provided the perfect setting for the Beach Volleyball event in August 2019, with the courts situated between the Moscow River and the main building of the arena.

In order to provide for a complete and unique experience for both players and fans, the event would be accompanied by entertainment acts such as flash mobs, cheerleading, live music, DJ, food courts, etc. Mr STANISLAVOV said that there would also be a VIP and B2B platform where special guests and celebrities from politics and sports could enjoy the best view of the centre court. As regards marketing and promotion, he noted that it would be similar to the promotion used for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 2018, with big banners on main roads, public ads, TV, radio and social media announcements, with particular attention on the latter to catch the interest of the younger generations.

The complete 2019 EuroBeachVolley presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.3 2021 EUROVOLLEY

Mr BORIČIĆ told the General Assembly about the commitment of the CEV Management to start preparing European Top Events more in advance than it used to be done in the past. He noted that this gave both the organiser and the CEV more time to communicate and collaborate and to negotiate support from local authorities and sponsors. He informed everyone that the CEV had already signed a contract with the following three countries for the organisation of 2021 EuroVolley Women: Serbia,

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Bulgaria and Romania. He also added that there would be a fourth country joining and negotiations were ongoing.

As for the 2021 EuroVolley Men, the CEV were also already in discussions with candidates, and the CEV President said he was very pleased with the amount of interest and applications the events were attracting. He congratulated the hosts of the 2019 and 2021 EuroVolley for their initiative and commitment and advised them that the events in their hands were the signature events for European Volleyball and that he wished for them to become even bigger and better. He commented on the fact that many National Federations in Europe still did not have enough respect for the European Championships, seeing the FIVB events as more valuable and more prestigious, and he asserted his strong desire for that to change in the future.

The complete 2021 EuroVolley presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.4 SPECIAL PROJECTS COMMISSION: COACHES CONVENTION (PHILIPPE BLAIN, ECOC PRESIDENT)

Mr Philippe BLAIN, the President of the European Coaches Commission addressed the General Assembly saying that the idea for the Coaches Convention, which was scheduled to take place in 2019, had been one of the first and most important projects of the Coaches Commission. He saw it as a good opportunity for coaches and teachers to get together, learn, share best practice and spread ideas.

Mr BLAIN mentioned the School Project, which was an integral part of the Coaches Convention, as the future of Volleyball, and pointed out teachers as crucial tools in the shaping of future Volleyball players. He advised that, apart from experts and officials, five best teachers/coaches from each National Federation implementing the School Project would be invited to join the Convention, as well as two teachers/coaches from National Federations with similar development initiatives. He then mentioned the aims and goals of the convention, which included:

• Better network and communication between coaches and teachers • Investment in future – we need a large basis of players, kids who choose to play Volleyball • Facilitation of the transition from entry level to regular Volleyball • Enhanced Volleyball knowledge of the teachers • More engagement and excitement with more kids playing Volleyball.

The Coaches Convention was to take place in Kranjska Gora (SLO) in June 2019, lasting three days from the 21st till the 23rd, with an estimated number of participants at 100. Before finalising his presentation, Mr BLAIN asserted his wish for more federations to join the School Project in the future.

The complete Coaches Convention presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.5 SCHOOL PROJECT (HANNO PEVKUR, CEV VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES/ VUK KARANOVIC, DEVELOPMENT MANAGER)

Mr Hanno PEVKUR, CEV Executive Committee Member in charge of Development Activities, referred to the growing need of the CEV to have more resources focussed on development, which had been recognised by the CEV Management. He then invited the participants of the General Assembly to watch a short video on CEV Development Activities.

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After the video, he referred to the CEV School Project as the central project of the CEV Development team focused on kids and youth all around Europe. He assured every one of the commitment and devotion of the CEV Management to development activities, and he also mentioned the involvement of and the cooperation with the FIVB on development. He invited all National Federations to recognise the importance and the magnitude of the School Project, saying that the only way to popularise Volleyball and successfully inspire children to play Volleyball and join Volleyball clubs was through a sense of togetherness and joint effort, urging everyone to be active and grow together as a Volleyball family. He also added that he was very pleased and proud of the work of the CEV Development team, before inviting Mr Vuk KARANOVIC, CEV Development Manager, to come up on stage and share more details of the CEV School Project.

Mr KARANOVIC commented on the fact that most Volleyball players and lovers became attached to the sport through their enthusiastic teachers who inspired them and instilled interest in the game. Therefore, he said he was happy that the importance of schools and their part in creating future Volleyball stars and fans was finally recognised. With the support of the CEV Leadership, the CEV was now able to offer National Federations a useful development product, supported by the European Commission, the Erasmus+ Programme. He noted that all the material developed in the framework of this project would be available to all 56 CEV National Federations via various channels, even though for the moment only eight National Federations had signed a contract with the CEV for the School Project, ensuring the bright future for Volleyball and facilitating the work of the school teachers introducing Volleyball at entry level as well as transitioning from entry to professional level.

He then moved on to talk about the CEV Campus, which had already been used for CEV Development Activities for three years, its content being regularly updated in order to provide current and relevant information, covering the following modules:

• Referees • CEV Volleyball Cups • Business concept for Beach Volleyball Club • Beach Volleyball Organisers • Coaches Platform • Media – facilitating the work of externals working for the CEV.

Mr KARANOVIC spoke about the future development projects of the CEV, which included:

• Support for coaches of category I and II National Federations • Beach Volleyball Development strategy 2022 • Harmonising the development vision, mission and goals with the FIVB • Closer cooperation with National Federations willing to apply for the FIVB Development Fund to help them prepare applications • Collaborating with non-Volleyball stakeholders on sport integrity, raising the awareness regarding match fixing and match manipulation • Working on exploiting the funds from the various EU fund projects, e.g. Dual Career (what to do after finishing the Volleyball career), Women in Sport, Cross-border cooperation (covering the collaboration of various countries on the organisation of future European Championships).

The complete School Project presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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12.6 DIGITAL APPROACH & NEW WEBSITE (FEDERICO FERRARO, PRESS OFFICER)

Mr Federico FERRARO, CEV Press Officer, addressed the General Assembly referring to the presentation of Mr ROBINSON on re-branding and noted two major upcoming projects of the CEV Communications Department. i.e. the OTT platform and the CEV website.

He indicated that the revolution with the CEV website was coming soon, a project which was very demanding, and said he was happy with the collaboration with the agency of Alphabet, which he saw as a very forward-thinking partner capable of helping the CEV to change their online and digital appearance. He spoke about the workshop organised at the CEV Office which included all the different parties involved in the project, with the CEV Communications Department leading the way, during which they discussed the workflow and the timeline of the project.

Mr FERRARO noted that his presentation was to a great extent a reflection of the rebranding of the CEV. He emphasised the fact that the new CEV website was being designed with fans in mind, to make it easy for them to find the information that they were looking for. He said he was hoping that the content delivered would be enjoyable on all possible devices used by the fans. He added that the CEV were going to create a Match Centre with all the key information on the CEV competitions as they unfold in real time. He asserted that the new website would offer a new way to engage with fans, and being a reflection of the new branding it was going to be engaging, modern and clean. In line with the strategic vision of CEV leadership, the athletes, both the established stars as well as the stars-to-be, were to take the centre stage, sharing with the fans both their experience on the court as well as off the court. The aim was for them to shine not just because of their sportive results and achievements but also to inspire the next generation of Volleyball players.

Mr FERRARO went on to inform the delegates that the first new online CEV competition resource to be launched was the 2019 EuroVolley holding page for both men and women, followed by the 2019 EuroBeachVolley holding page for the Beach Volleyball event taking place in Moscow. He noted that there would be some sites in each of the national languages of the host countries in order to facilitate the communication with the local fans, while the main communication was still to be done in English. Moreover, the holding page for EuroSnowVolley was to be made available in 2020, coinciding with the competition itself. As regards the launch of the new CEV website, the first version was to be made available in May 2019. Mr FERRARO admitted that the whole project was an exciting journey requiring a lot of work and effort but he was confident that, having the right people on board, the CEV were ready to revolutionise their digital appearance.

Finally, he also announced that the CEV were on the final countdown to the launch of the OTT platform called EuroVolley.tv, an online platform managed by the CEV and designed for all Volleyball fans, including all videos and streaming for CEV competitions. He asserted that it would be a kind of an online video library where people could enjoy the very best of Volleyball. He asked all Congress participants to spread the news to make sure as many as possible Volleyball fans could register on the platform and enjoy this digital revolution.

At the end of his presentation, Mr FERRARO invited everyone to watch a short video called “This is European Volleyball” depicting the highlights of 2018 Champions League Finals in Kazan (RUS).

The complete Digital Approach & New Website presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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13. Proposals from National Federations

Mr BRINK noted that there had been no proposals from CEV National Federations, who, in line with the Statues, had been requested to submit them by 14 July 2018.

14. Framework - Proposals

Mr Alain FISCHBACHER, the President of the European Legal Commission, came up on stage to talk about the CEV Regulations and noted that there were three proposals to vote on. He referred everyone to the Handbook for more details of the proposals as well as explanations.

The first proposal concerned the submission of candidatures for CEV Working Groups to the CEV Board of Administration, meant to make a clear distinction between Commissions and Working Groups, with the two having different character and competences. The proposal was that the CEV President could present the candidatures directly to the Board of Administration, which would facilitate the start of the work of such Working Groups, in line with their intended purpose and nature.

DECISION In the absence of any comments or questions, the proposal of the distinction between the character, competences and candidature submission of the CEV Commissions and CEV Working Groups was approved by the CEV General Assembly.

The second proposal was related to the proposed changes to the FIVB Statutes concerning the election procedure for FIVB Board of Administration Members. If this proposal went through, it would render it necessary for the CEV to change the CEV Statutes to make them in line with the FIVB’s ones. The proposal from the European Legal Commission in regard to this was to change only what was strictly necessary in order to respect the FIVB Regulations. These proposed changes would only enter into force if the FIVB General Assembly approved the changes to their statutes first.

DECISION In the absence of any comments or questions, the proposal to change the CEV Statutes so as to stay in line with the FIVB Statutes, if the proposed changes to the latter were approved by the FIVB General Assembly, was approved by the CEV General Assembly.

The third proposal concerned the term of office of the members of the CEV bodies and was also closely linked to and dependent on the approval of the proposed changes to the FIVB Statutes. According to the proposal, the current CEV bodies would remain in power until the elections of the 2020 CEV General Assembly, which would take place 3-4 months before the elections of the 2020 FIVB Congress.

DECISION In the absence of any comments or questions, the proposal to change the term of office of the CEV bodies and to hold the General Assembly official elections 3-4 month before the FIVB General Assembly elections was approved by the CEV General Assembly.

The complete list of the proposals to change the CEV Regulatory Framework can be found annexed to these minutes.

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15. XL CEV General Assembly

Mr Julius BRINK informed the audience that the 2018 Congress was scheduled to take place on 27 September 2019 in Paris (FRA) in the framework of the 2019 CEV EuroVolley Finals.

16. Miscellaneous

The CEV Senior Vice-President, Mr Renato ARENA, awarded the newly appointed National Federation Presidents on behalf of the CEV with the Golden Pin:

• Mr Gernot LEITNER – The Volleyball Federation of Austria • Mr Alija FATIC - The Volleyball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina • Mr Adam WALKER – The Volleyball Federation of England • Mr René HECHT – The Volleyball Federation of Germany • Mr Alvaro LOPES – The Volleyball Federation of Portugal • Mr Martin KRASCENIC – The Volleyball Federation of Slovakia • Mr Lennart NEOVIUS – The Volleyball Federation of Sweden.

Mr BRINK reminded the delegates of the CEV Zonal Association meetings scheduled to take place that afternoon at the Convention Center of Hotel Paradisus Cancún, and he also invited everyone to the Mikasa Cocktail Reception at the Gazebo Area of the hotel later in the evening. He then thanked everyone for their attention and invited the CEV President to deliver his closing speech.

17. Closing Speech of the CEV President

Mr BORIČIĆ commented on the short duration of the Congress, but he said he was confident that all the relevant topics had been covered and important decisions taken. He asked the National Federations to communicate with him, with the CEV, on a regular basis rather than just limiting the communication to that one day a year during which the General Assembly was held.

He reaffirmed again his determination to extend and strengthen the partnership with the FIVB. He also reaffirmed his intention to increase cooperation with the European Union. Referring to 2021 as the year when the contract with SportRadar was terminating, he urged the National Federations to be prepared for potential new business relations where the CEV should be the owner of Volleyball rights and decisions. He urged for more investment in social media, particularly with Eurosport.

The CEV President once more stressed the importance of cooperation between the CEV and the National Federations in order to increase the value of Volleyball. He assured everybody of the readiness and the willingness of the CEV to listen to and help all federations which were themselves willing and ready to work hard for Volleyball. He acknowledged the improvements already made in this respect but he was adamant that a lot more could be achieved. He asked the National Federations to come up with clear strategic plans, to define their goals and share them with the CEV. He wanted to see real togetherness, real cooperation and hard work, all in the name of Volleyball.

He then thanked all the participants for their attention and officially closed the 2018 CEV General Assembly.

Wednesday 14 November 2018 CEV GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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XXXVIII GENERAL ASSEMBLY

MINUTES

Place: ICE Congress Centre, Kraków (POL)

Date(s): Friday 1 September 2017

RECORD OF ATTENDANCE A. CEV Board of Administration ...... 3 B. Internal auditors ...... 3 C. Special guests ...... 3 D. Delegates of the affiliated National Federations ...... 4 E. Observers ...... 4 F. Interpreters ...... 4 G. CEV Office ...... 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVIII General Assembly ...... 6 1.1 Welcome Speech by the CEV President, Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ ...... 6 1.2 Welcome Speech by the Polish NF President, Mr Jacek KASPRZYK ...... 6 2. Setting up of the XXXVIII General Assembly's Office ...... 6 2.1 Record of Attendance ...... 6 2.2 Confirmation of the Appointment of the Credentials & Checking Commission Members ...... 7 2.3 Report of the Credentials & Checking Commission ...... 7 3. Official Opening of the XXXVIII General Assembly ...... 7 4. Approval of the Agenda ...... 7 5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVII General Assembly held in Luxembourg (LUX)...... 7 6. CEV President’s Address ...... 8 7. FIVB President’s Video Message ...... 10 8. Financial Report ...... 10 8.1 Accounts 2016 ...... 10 8.2 Internal Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2016 ...... 10 8.3 External Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2016 ...... 11 8.4 Confirmation of the Internal Auditors ...... 11 8.5 Updated 2017 Budget and 2018 Budget Proposal ...... 11 9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook ...... 12 9.1 Comments and Questions ...... 12 9.2 Confirmation of Reports ...... 12 10. Coaches Commission Presentation ...... 12 11. Athletes’ Working Group Presentation...... 13 12. Future Projects ...... 14 12.1 2019 CEV Volleyball European Championship ...... 14 12.2 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship ...... 14 12.3 Special Projects Commissions ...... 15 12.4 Development Projects ...... 15 12.5 Communication Projects ...... 16 13. Proposals from National Federations ...... 17 15. XXXIX CEV General Assembly ...... 18 16. Miscellaneous ...... 19 17. Closing Speech of the CEV President ...... 19 18. Annexes ...... 20

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Attendance List

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ CEV President M. Renato ARENA Senior Vice-President Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL Vice-President & Treasurer Mr Lubor HALANDA Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Mr Maris PEKALIS Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Ms Banu CAN SCHÜRMANN Vice-President Mr Hanno PEVKUR Vice-President Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING Vice-President Mr Stanislav SHEVCHENKO Vice-President Mr Eric ADLER CEV BOA Member Mr Zdeslav BARAČ CEV BOA Member Mr Michel EVERAERT CEV BOA Member Mr Peter KLEINMANN CEV BOA Member Mr Dancho LAZAROV CEV BOA Member Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI CEV BOA Member Mr Gudmundur Helgi THORSTEINSSON CEV BOA Member

Mr Athanasios BELIGRATIS CEV Honorary Member Mr Miguel Angel QUINTANA CEV Honorary Member Mr Fabio SASSI CEV Honorary Member Mr Andreas STAVROU CEV Honorary Member

Mr Roman STANISLAVOV ECC President Mr Wojciech CZAYKA ESOC President Mr Alain FISCHBACHER ELC President Mr Luciano GASPARI ERC President Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE EMC President

Mr Michel HENNO CEV Auditor Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ CEV Auditor

Mr Fabio AZEVEDO FIVB General Director

Mr Samuele PAPI CEV Athletes’ Working Group President Ms Maja OGNJENOVIC CEV Athletes’ Working Group Secretary Mr Aleksandrs SAMOILOVS CEV Athletes’ Working Group Member

Mr Martin KASWURM Chaka2 Mr Veit MANNINGER Chaka2 Mr Valentin CAPELLI European Olympic Committee Mr Folker HELLMUND European Olympic Committee Mr Sebastian KURCZYNSKI Nielsen Sports Mr Julien ZYLBERSTEIN UEFA

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ALBANIA Erlind PELLUMBI Albens VOKOPOLA ANDORRA Agusti BOLDU ARMENIA Proxy to RUSSIA AUSTRIA Philipp SEEL AZERBAIJAN Elshan ISMAYILOV Mikhail FRISHMAN BELGIUM Guy JUWET Willy BRUNINX BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Milutin POPOVIĆ Draženko HARAČIĆ BELARUS Aliaksandr PIASETSKI BULGARIA Lubomir GANEV CROATIA Ante BAKOVIĆ Valentina BIFFLIN CYPRUS Michalis KRASHIAS Giorgos STEFANIDIS CZECH REPUBLIC Marek PAKOSTA Milan LABASTA DENMARK Erik JACOBSEN Mikael TROLLE ENGLAND Keith NICHOLLS Stewart DUNNE ESTONIA Helen VEERMÄE FAROE ISLANDS Magnus TAUSEN Niclas JOENSEN FINLAND Keijo SÄILYNOJA Former Yugoslav Republic Zoran KARANOVIĆ Simon DJINES of MACEDONIA FRANCE Eric TANGUY Annie PEYTAVIN GEORGIA Irakli CHACHUA Andria LEZHAVA GERMANY Thomas KRÖHNE Jörg ZIEGLER GIBRALTAR Hayley BUSBY Eva MORELLO GREECE Georgios KARAMPETSOS GREENLAND Proxy to ICELAND HUNGARY Ferenc KOVÁCS Zsolt LUDVIG IRELAND Grainne CULLITON Jennifer FITZGERALD ICELAND Jason ĺVARSSON ISRAEL Eviatar DOTAN Yaniv NOYMAN ITALY Pietro Bruno CATTANEO Alberto RABITI KOSOVO Abedin IBRAHIMI Blerim GERGURI LATVIA Atis SAUSNITIS LIECHTENSTEIN Philippe SCHÜRMANN LITHUANIA Darius CERKA LUXEMBOURG Guy ERPELDING Gerard SCHOOS MALTA Tony SAMMUT Dalton CARUANA MOLDOVA Artur ROMASCAN Natalia DUDCEAC MONACO Christian PALMARO MONTENEGRO Cvetko PAJKOVIC Ivan BOSKOVIC NETHERLANDS Peter SPRENGER NORTHERN IRELAND Paddy MURPHY Joanna MCCRORY NORWAY Kristian GJERSTADBERGET POLAND Jacek KASPRZYK Tomasz KARASINSKI PORTUGAL Vicente Henrique Teodemiro Emanuel DE CARVALHO GONCALVES DE ARAÚJO ROMANIA Gheorghe VISAN Gabriela BULGARIU RUSSIA Alexander YAREMENKO Mikhail PODLOZNYI SAN MARINO Federico VALENTINI SCOTLAND Alexander STEEL SERBIA Zoran GAJIC Ivan KNEŽEVIĆ SLOVENIA Metod ROPRET Gregor HUMERCA Luis MUCHAGA FLORES

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SLOVAKIA Tomáš SINGER SWEDEN Saffet ERAYBAR Bengt WICKSELL SWITZERLAND Werner AUGSBURGER TURKEY Nihal IŞÇI Nilüfer Basak SHIMONSKY UKRAINE Mykhaylo MELNYK WALES Proxy to Northern Ireland

Observer Konalsi GJOKA ALBANIA Observer Karl HANZL AUSTRIA Observer Barys TSYPORYN BELARUS Observer Geert DE DOBBELEER BELGIUM Observer Linos PETRIDES CYPRUS Observer Thomas BRO-RASMUSSEN DENMARK Observer Jørgen BENTZEN DENMARK Observer Jussi JOKINEN FINLAND Observer Inara BROKANE LATVIA Observer Ewelina CHOJNACKA NORTHERN IRELAND Observer Marie MURPHY NORTHERN IRELAND Observer Evgeniy FOMIN RUSSIA Observer Vladimir PATKIN RUSSIA Observer Ivan MILJKOVIC SERBIA Observer Nejc ZEMLJAK SLOVENIA

Interpreter Giovanna SASSI ITALY

Moderator Julius BRINK CEV General Assembly Moderator

CEV Office Thorsten ENDRES CEV Managing Director CEV Office Isabelle COLLOT CEV Executive Assistant & Administrative Manager CEV Office Snezana MISIĆ CEV Executive Assistant President's Office CEV Office Federico FERRARO CEV Press Officer CEV Office Vuk KARANOVIĆ CEV Development Manager CEV Office Marc VAN DER ELST CEV IT Manager CEV Office George GAGALIS CEV Beach Volleyball Coordinator CEV Office Xavier MANSAT CEV Legal Coordinator

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1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVIII General Assembly

1.1 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE CEV PRESIDENT, MR ALEKSANDAR BORIČIĆ

Welcome to Kraków!

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank our host, the Polish Volleyball Federation for providing us with these meeting facilities. I would especially like to thank all people who contributed to the delivery of the outstanding and amazing Opening Event last Thursday in Warsaw. This event, in front of more than 65,000 spectators shall serve as an inspiration for our entire Volleyball family.

The CEV is undergoing many changes and I ask for your understanding and patience since changes are never that easy to make. It is high time for the CEV institution to look forward and embrace the future.

With the aim of improving our exchange and communication, we decided to split this annual Congress into two parts - the more formal session in the morning, to fulfil all requirements according to our Regulatory Framework, while the afternoon will be dedicated to panel discussions on various topics selected by all of you.

This is done that way for the first time in CEV’s history and I encourage you to actively participate and share with us your opinion and proposals. Please use this opportunity!

I wish all of us fruitful discussions and a successful Congress.

1.2 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE POLISH NF PRESIDENT, MR JACEK KASPRZYK

Mr Jacek KASPRZYK, the Polish Volleyball Federation President welcomed all CEV officials and delegates to Poland and expressed his gratitude to the CEV and President BORIČIĆ for the trust in the Polish Volleyball Federation and the mutual cooperation in the delivery of the EuroVolley and the congress. In particular, he thanked the CEV for the support for the outstanding opening match at the Warsaw stadium.

He wished everyone a pleasant stay in Poland and a fruitful Congress meeting.

2. Setting up of the XXXVIII General Assembly's Office

2.1 RECORD OF ATTENDANCE

Mr Julius BRINK expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the CEV General Assembly as a moderator for the second year in a row and swiftly moved on to the record of attendance.

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2.2 CONFIRMATION OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION MEMBERS

Mr BRINK announced the four members of the Credentials & Checking Commission:

 Mr Jörg ZIEGLER (GER) - Chairman  Mr Ivan BOŠKOVIĆ (MNE)  Mr Niclas JOENSEN (FAR)  Mr Albens VOKOPOLA (ALB)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the composition of the Credentials & Checking Commission was approved by the General Assembly.

2.3 REPORT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION

Mr ZIEGLER informed the General Assembly that all Credential and Proxy Letters had been verified and that everything was found to be in accordance with the CEV Statutes. There were 53 National Federations present and 3 National Federations validly represented by proxy, making a total of 56.

3. Official Opening of the XXXVIII General Assembly

Based on the report of the Credential Checking Commission, Mr BORIČIĆ declared the XXXVIII CEV General Assembly as officially open.

4. Approval of the Agenda

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the agenda of the XXXVIII General Assembly was officially approved.

5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVII General Assembly held in Luxembourg (LUX)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the minutes of the XXXVII General Assembly held in Luxembourg (LUX) on 17 November 2016 were officially approved.

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6. CEV President’s Address

Dear Members of our Volleyball Family,

It is not so long ago we have met in Luxembourg and I am glad to see all of you again for our annual meeting. I am looking forward to exchange ideas, proposals and experiences, in order to further develop and promote Volleyball all across all your countries.

We have completely changed our relation with the FIVB. We have improved the communication with our colleagues on all levels and are working closely together with respect and in the interest of our sport.

On this occasion, I would like to thank the FIVB President, Dr Ary Graça and the FIVB General Director, Mr Fabio Azevedo, who is among us and representing FIVB today, for their cooperation.

What is the sense of being a sport institution without having sportive activities? This is our core business and I encourage you all to increase the efforts and to be an active member of our Team.

We are particularly proud of having changed the format of our two Volleyball flagship events, the CEV Volleyball Champions League and the European Championship, providing to all of you more opportunities.

The CEV Volleyball Champions League has a new format which will provide an increase every year of the sport, promotional and business value of Volleyball.

Following professional and absolutely transparent bidding process, I am very glad that we are in the position to announce later today during this meeting, which National Federations will host the 2019 CEV Volleyball European Championship, with a total of 48 Teams participating in the Final Rounds in both genders.

As I said before, the CEV is providing opportunities.

On this occasion, I sincerely thank all of you who have organised or will organise a European event this year.

How to promote your Teams and our sport in your country without having home matches? We would like to see more Federations organising European events and it is possible with our new approach, even for smaller Federations.

The future step in order to bring Volleyball to the next level is to think bigger. You shall not forget your National Federation and where you are coming from, but when we are talking together of the future of our , we need to leave persons and national interest behind. From national we go to international!

Of course, each team is practicing hard in order to win the next match and title and that is what sport is about, but we, on our political level, we shall think how to make our athletes more popular, how to have more visibility on TV, how to attract more young people to follow our sport, how to achieve more revenues from outside to invest back in our sport. And, we strongly believe that we have to think wider and bigger in order to do so and make the next step, and not only focus on how my team can win the next competition.

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And, it is not enough to share opinions only once a year during this annual meeting, we expect your participation and feedback during the entire year. Our communication is open 24 hours all 365 days of the year.

Do not wait until your team is facing some difficulties before criticising CEV or our Regulatory Framework. Be actively involved in all processes and provide us your opinion and feedback from the beginning to prevent issues before they arise.

Of course, neither the various CEV bodies nor our Regulatory Framework can serve and satisfy all 56 National Federations, but we can provide the best possible, fair and equal conditions for all participants.

If we all apply this, we do not need to discuss about potential consequences and we do not need lawyers in our internal communication.

We have identified Social Media as one of our priorities and as we will hear later on, in short time, we have improved a lot.

We are pushing hard our media partners Sportsman/Sportradar and Infront to open the contracts, which have been signed by the previous leadership until 2021. We are currently in concrete negotiations with both partners, aiming to create a win-win situation by having more opportunities to promote our sport on TV and Social Media.

As stated earlier, one of our priorities is the extension and increase of visibility for our athletes and our events. Nowadays, the so-called OTT platforms, Over-the-top content, have become a great tool to promote audio-visual content. The CEV would like to be a forerunner in this new technology and is currently working on the realisation of its own multi-channel platform, which is supposed to serve as European virtual home for live, re-live and highlight content for all our events.

This will be a major step for our sport and all fans across Europe. And, as you can imagine, it is a very complex project as it involves various parties and rights. Thus, we need to be patient, until we have finalised negotiations and clarified pending issues.

Before finishing my speech, I would like to thank all of you for your ongoing involvement, passion and enthusiasm in promoting and developing our sport. You are laying the foundation for our common success.

My gratitude also goes to my colleagues from the Executive Committee and the Board of Administration, as well as to all members of our various commissions and bodies. They are working hard to implement the new vision and mentality in our institution and our team.

Finally, my credit goes also to the staff members of our Head Office in Luxembourg and the President Office in Belgrade for their work and commitment in delivering on a day-to-day basis the service to all our members and partners.

I wish all of us a successful Congress with a lot of inspiration for our future team work.

Thank you for your attention.

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7. FIVB President’s Video Message

Dr. Ary S. Graça, the FIVB President, greeted everyone and excused himself for not being present. He had been urgently called in by the Ministry of Sports of China with the aim of attracting the powerful country to the development of Volleyball.

He then spoke about the unifying passion for sport, for Volleyball, shared by the whole Volleyball family. He referred to the improved and extended cooperation between the FIVB and the CEV, which he was very happy about. He expressed his confidence in the European development programme with many strong countries already thriving and others ready to advance to higher levels.

Dr Graça mentioned the visit of the CEV staff to the FIVB Office as an example of how the two institutions were working on improving their common efforts for the good of indoor Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Snow Volleyball. He was looking forward to the Olympic Winter Games and the incorporation of Snow Volleyball as one of its disciplines, as he saw the huge potential that the new winter discipline offered and was very proud of Europe for growing and promoting it.

The FIVB President talked about the improvements in technology, in particular in terms of the use of the Challenge System, reducing the subjective human influence on the outcomes of international matches, thereby eliminating possible mistakes. He was also happy with the development of e-learning which greatly reduced the travel expenses for those who need to participate in training programmes and workshops. Finally, he expressed his wish to see more income from TV for Volleyball and more visibility in the media in general.

At the end of his address, Dr Graça asserted his readiness to invest especially in the federations that needed more support, and he also emphasised his commitment alongside Mr BORIČIĆ to remaining open to all and any suggestions and requests for the benefit of Volleyball. He then thanked everyone for their attention and hoped that the 2017 CEV General Assembly would turn out to be an enjoyable and fruitful experience for all.

8. Financial Report

8.1 ACCOUNTS 2016

Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL, CEV Vice-President and Treasurer, took the podium to talk about the CEV financial report. He asserted that the CEV Financial team worked hard to ensure transparency and consistency of all CEV Accounts, generating a healthy financial position and income resources. He referred to the Congress Handbook for details of expenditures and revenues, and stated that according to the Internal and External CEV Reports, the 2016 CEV Accounts had been found compliant with the Luxembourgish Law and FIVB Regulations.

8.2 INTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2016

As laid down in the CEV Statutes, the 2016 CEV Accounts were subject to an internal audit by Mr Michel HENNO and Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ, CEV Internal Auditors.

The written internal audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

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8.3 EXTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2016

As laid down in the CEV Statutes and Luxembourg's legislation, the 2016 CEV accounts were also subject to an external audit by the company Grant Thornton Lux Audit SA.

The written external audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.4 CONFIRMATION OF THE INTERNAL AUDITORS

In the absence of any other proposal, Mr MUTLUGIL asked the General Assembly to confirm the internal auditors for the next working period as proposed by the CEV Board of Administration:

 Mr Michel HENNO (BEL)  Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ (FIN)  Reserve: TBC

DECISION The General Assembly unanimously confirmed Mr HENNO and Mr ALA-NISSILÄ as CEV Internal Auditors for the next working period. In the absence of any other questions or remarks, the 2016 CEV Accounts and Reports were also approved by the General Assembly.

8.5 UPDATED 2017 BUDGET AND 2018 BUDGET PROPOSAL

Mr MUTLUGIL referred to the annual budget meeting which had taken place in April 2017, the aim of which was to update the CEV Budget 2017 and to establish the proposal for the budget 2018 in accordance with the latest available information. He noted that the CEV Board of Administration approved the 2016 CEV Accounts, updated 2017 and draft 2018 budgets as well as the Auditors’ reports.

He highlighted the following points regarding the updated 2017 Budget:

 Implementation of the 2016 Congress decision:  Increase prize money Champions-League: total 1,871,200 €  Increase prize money European League: total 197,500 €  Increase prize money European Championship: total 700,000 €  Development Activities (Special programmes NF, school project & ZAs activities)  Increased activities in Social Media (video content, back stage stories, CEV crew’s on site etc.)  Annual allocation for commission presidents (2,000€) and Secretaries (1,500€)  Adoption of the various accounts due to re-negotiated contracts and changed facts  Clarification required about the annual FIVB support  Negative balance of 493,331 due to investments made in 2017 from income generated in 2016.

As for the Budget Proposal 2018, Mr MUTLUGIL stressed the following general principles:

 Conservative calculation based on existing facts and/or contracts  Figures proposed from initial 2016 budget based on actual contractual income situation

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 Potential increase of prize money, communication activities, development activities and additional staff based on realised income  Better financial situation expected based on on-going negotiations with Infront/Sportradar, sponsors and future organisers of Top events.

Mr MUTLUGIL then highlighted the details of the proposed 2018 Budget.

The presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the updated 2017 budget & the proposed 2018 Budget was unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook

9.1 COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

Mr BRINK referred to the fact that Activity Reports of the various bodies had been sent to all CEV National Federations prior to the Congress with a feedback deadline within which no comments or questions had been received.

9.2 CONFIRMATION OF REPORTS

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the 2017 CEV Congress Handbook Activity Reports were unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

10. Coaches Commission Presentation

Mr BRINK, announced the re-instatement of the European Coaches Commission (ECOC). This move will foster the cooperation with key actors as well as the involvement of coaches and players in the strategic planning, thus further boosting the growth and development of Volleyball at all levels and across the whole of Europe.

The European Coaches Commission (ECOC) includes the following members:

 Philippe BLAIN (FRA) – President  Thomas BRO-RASMUSSEN (DEN) – Secretary  Gert VANDE BROEK (BEL)  Urmas TALI (EST)  Tuomas SAMMELVUO (FIN)  Sophia PAPADOPOULOU (GRE)  Marco MENCARELLI (ITA)  Casper GROENHUIJZEN (NED)  Ferhat AKBAS (TUR)

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DECISION The CEV General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Mr Philippe BLAIN as a President of the re-established ECOC and acknowledged its members.

The Secretary of the Coaches Commission, Mr Thomas BRO-RASMUSSEN, took the floor to present the vision and the mission of the Commission.

The ECOC blends the experience brought by a number of coaches working with elite teams with the background of others who are heavily involved in the implementation of projects focussing on the grassroots level, thus accounting for a comprehensive portrait of the whole Volleyball family.

The ECOC will – inter alia – supervise the drafting and implementation of development projects, help disseminate teaching materials and best practices across Europe, and support National Federations in the delivery of coaching courses, thus establishing a European network involving Volleyball coaches, all equally committed to growing the game at all levels.

The complete presentation of ECOC can be found annexed to these minutes

11. Athletes’ Working Group Presentation

Julius BRINK also announced the establishment of a CEV Athletes’ Working Group.

Mr BRINK introduced the appointed members of the CEV Athletes’ Working Group, who have been appointed by the Board of Administration:

 Samuele PAPI (ITA) – President  Maja OGNJENOVIC (SRB) – Secretary  Lyubomir GANEV (BUL)  Aleksandrs SAMOILOVS (LAT)  Lonneke SLÖETJES (NED)  Pawel ZAGUMNY (POL)  Ekaterina GAMOVA (RUS)  Neslihan DEMIR GÜLER (TUR)

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ took the floor and thanked all members for having accepted their nomination in this important working group. He stated that the Working Group includes a number of former elite athletes – multiple medallists from European and World Championships as well as from the Olympic Games – plus some of the current major stars of the game.

The Working Group is aimed to be an advisory body, the members of the Athletes’ Working Group will work closely together to represent the views of the athletes and make their voice heard within the CEV, therefore bringing the players closer to the decision-making process as well as to the institutional life of the European Volleyball Confederation.

Mr BORIČIĆ shared his wish that they will also help bring Volleyball closer to young people, taking an active role as ambassadors, not only in the frame of the CEV’s “Volleyball at School” project.

The President of the Working Group, Mr Samuele PAPI, took the floor and expressed his gratitude and honour for being appointed as President of the CEV Athletes’ Working Group.

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He thank President BORIČIĆ and the CEV Board of Administration for giving the current and previous athletes the opportunity to be part of CEV and act as Ambassadors of their beloved sport.

Mr PAPI promised that they would do their best to make their contribution to the promotion and value of Volleyball, as athletes, both former and active, taking the best from the past to make a better future.

He closed his short speech by stating that this new Working Group would show its best to the motto WE ARE ALL ONE VOLLEYBALL TEAM!

12. Future Projects

12.1 2019 CEV VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Mr BORIČIĆ made a truly historic announcement as he confirmed that four countries – France, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands – would be playing host to the 2019 edition of the Men’s EuroVolley. The tournament will run from 12 to 29 September 2019.

This will be the first time the flagship event for National Teams will take place in four countries. The 2019 Men’s European Championship will therefore become a milestone in European Volleyball history and provide a truly unique opportunity for the long-term, sustainable growth of the game across the whole of Europe.

The 2019 edition of the men’s EuroVolley will feature as many as 24 teams, thus providing a record- breaking number of National Federations with an opportunity to compete at the highest level and bringing the ‘ultimate Volleyball show’ to an unprecedented number of fans across Europe. 12 teams, including those of the four host countries, will be pre-qualified for the Final Round as per the final standing of the 2017 edition held in Poland.

The representatives of all four countries were asked to join the CEV President on the stage, were they received from Mr BORIČIĆ pieces of the joint CEV EuroVolley 2019 court.

The CEV President also disclosed to the delegates the names of the four countries set to host the 2019 edition of the Women’s European Championship: Turkey, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the latter being still a ‘tentative’ host at this stage.

Also the representatives of the four women’s organisers were invited to the stage to receive from the CEV President the pieces of the joint court.

As with the 2019 Men’s EuroVolley, participation in the Final Round will be open to as many as 24 teams – with 12 (including the host countries) qualified as per the final standing of the 2017 edition due to take place in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The complete 2019 CEV Volleyball European Championship presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.2 2018 CEV SNOW VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Mr BORIČIĆ announced that the Austrian Volleyball Federation (OeVV) and promoter Chaka2 GmbH will be co-hosting the inaugural Snow Volleyball European Championships – where 10,000 € prize money per gender will be at stake with the final matches taking place before an audience of some 600 people up in the Austrian mountains.

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After the successful delivery of the 2016 and 2017 editions of the European Tour, the inaugural CEV Snow Volleyball European Championships was scheduled to take place on 22-25 March 2018 in Wagrain-Kleinarl & Flachau (AUT). The competition would feature 16 teams per gender and crown the first ever Snow Volleyball European Champions.

Mr Peter KLEINMANN, the President of the Austrian Volleyball Federation, was then asked to the stage where the CEV President officially handed him the CEV Championship banner. Afterwards, Chaka2 were invited to deliver the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship presentation.

The establishment of a fully recognised European Championship will mark another milestone in the steady development of Snow Volleyball – as the game on snow has been rapidly growing internationally and at national level as well with many hoping that one day it will feature on the programme of the Winter Olympics.

The complete 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.3 SPECIAL PROJECTS COMMISSIONS

Mr Michel EVERAERT, EBVC President, began by outlining accomplishments in Snow Volleyball. He noted that the CEV were responsible for all Snow Volleyball events in Europe and that the FIVB were supporting the CEV in the promotion and development of the discipline. More and more countries were joining/interested to join the CEV Snow Volleyball events and the CEV together with the FIVB were hoping to introduce Snow Volleyball World Tour events from 2019 onwards in all Confederations, as well as to include the sport in the programme of the Winter Olympics, hopefully by 2026.

As regards Beach Volleyball, Mr EVERAERT outlined the integration of CEV Master & Satellite events in the 5 Stars World Tour structure. He noted that this was a milestone in the collaboration between the CEV and the FIVB in Beach Volleyball and a further step in creating a sustainable business model for CEV organisers. With this collaboration, the CEV would use synergies, create a better product and make the global tournament structure more clear and easy to understand for all stakeholders. It would also prevent the CEV and the FIVB from competing against each other for organisers.

In addition, he emphasised the importance of encouraging all age groups to get involved in the sport, outdoor and indoor, which could be achieved by the creation of Beach Volleyball clubs dedicated to organising various events, both recreational as well as professional. An e-learning course on “How to create Beach Volleyball clubs” was soon to be released by the CEV.

The complete Special Projects Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.4 DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Mr Vuk KARANOVIC, Development Manager, reminisced about the last years Development report during the Congress in Luxembourg where he detailed the potential development activities with an idea and vision on what the CEV wanted to achieve.

Now, the CEV is in a position to provide the audience with a concrete action plan and a path that the CEV wants to follow in the years to come.

Considering the fact that almost all of the CEV National Federations have a chronical lack of human resources and that more than 50% of the federations have no more than 2 full time employees, the CEV as a service provider realised that it would be helpful to create a Pan-European project that would fit the National Federations with certain adjustment to be done on a national level.

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The CEV School Project “Play Volleyball, grow with it”, for which more discussion will take place during the panel discussion later on, will be the main development activity for the course of years to come.

Additionally, he stressed out the importance of the tool being used and that should be expanded in the future: the CEV Campus (online educational platform).

This tool currently consists of the following modules:

 CEV Cups organisers: Champions League, CEV Cup and Challenge Cup  Guidelines for Beach Volleyball event organisers  E-Scoresheet guidelines.

Additional modules will be activated on the platform in 2018:

 How to start and run a Beach Volleyball club from A to Z The CEV recognise the importance of the clubs and the contribution they can have on the development of the Beach Volleyball community. That’s why it was decided to develop a module dedicated just for the Beach Volleyball clubs. From business model to training methods.  Referees Academy On the CEV Campus, a dedicated area for the referees will be developed, where they will be able to facilitate their match preparation.  Coaching platform This is aimed to be an area on the CEV Campus dedicated especially to the coaches & physical education teachers involved in the CEV School Project, where they will be able to: . Download the educational materials . Upload their own modifications of the exercises . Communicate and exchange experience with colleagues from different countries

The complete Development Projects presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.5 COMMUNICATION PROJECTS

Mr Federico FERRARO, CEV Press Officer, spoke about the growing digital trends with the advancements in technology constantly changing the way we communicate and share information. He emphasised the need to make the content more visual, more personal, and more engaging, with possibilities of direct and indirect interaction between the players and the fans/followers.

In particular, he spoke about the need to look at Volleyball players and see them not only as athletes, but also as CEV’s ambassadors with an important role both on and off the court. Furthermore, Mr FERRARO noted that it was crucial to create a closer relationship with the fans, giving them the possibility to be more actively involved and to interact more with the players, take part in various exciting contests and other activities both onsite and online. What Volleyball needs is more emotion, more passion and more personality, so that the players have more fun playing and the fans have more fun watching, and consequently, they are also more eager to keep the action and relationship going beyond the events themselves.

With regard to the future communication projects of the CEV, Mr FERRARO pointed out the necessity of growing the network of communication specialists and of modernising the resources and applications. In particular, the future projects includes:

 Further growth and use of the network of Communication specialists

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 Greater focus on off the court actions and content  Introduction of videographers into top events  Increasing media requirements for teams at top events  Prioritising efforts of being original but with continuity  Modernising on-line resources (e.g. website, OTT platform)  Decreasing the content for reading and increasing the teasing and pleasing content.

The complete Communication Projects presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

13. Proposals from National Federations

Mr Werner AUGSBURGER (SUI NF) referred to the high requirements for clubs and national federations to compete in CEV Competitions; in particular, he mentioned the Champions League and asked the CEV to re-consider and adopt the requirements.

Mr Roman STANISLAVOV took the floor and referred to the on-going discussion with all the stakeholders of the Champions League with the aim of constantly increasing the value of this prime club competition and to create a product for the market. At the same, he noted that the current European Cups system, with the Champions League, CEV Cup and Challenge Cup, offers plenty of opportunities for clubs from all levels, while for the Champions League top conditions were requested.

Ms Giovanna SASSI addressed the General Assembly on behalf of the Italian Volleyball Federation, putting forward a proposal regarding age-group competitions, whereby the reigning champions should automatically qualify for the next edition of that same competition.

Mr Wojtech CHAYKA explained that this proposal had already been discussed in the past and everyone agreed that no teams other than the hosts should qualify automatically, as the following edition would feature players from a younger generation – and not the same team that won gold in the last edition of that same championship.

14. CEV Regulatory Framework - Proposals

Mr Alain FISCHBACHER, the President of the European Legal Commission, came up on stage to talk about the new version of the CEV Statutes and Mediation Chamber Regulations which had been submitted to the General Assembly for approval.

He noted that following the refurbishing of the CEV Volleyball Competitions Regulations, Mr Xavier MANSAT, CEV Legal Coordinator, had worked on refreshing, harmonising, simplifying and improving the rest of the CEV regulations. Changes had been done on the content and form of the regulations. The European Legal Commission provided support and suggested adjustments all along the process. Mr FISCHBACHER then affirmed that the General Regulations as well as the Disciplinary Regulations had already been approved by the Board of Administration.

The new version of the CEV Statutes had been modified so it would comply with the Luxembourgish Law, FIVB Regulatory Framework and good governance principles. Its wording was now in line with the rest of the regulations. The principle of the hierarchy of norms had also been implemented. Therefore, the most important and general principles were included in the Statutes while the details and sub- principles had been moved to the General Regulations.

In addition to that, the major changes introduced were the following:

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 CEV Board of Administration member candidates would be appointed by the CEV President and ratified by the General Assembly;  The CEV President could do a maximum of two terms of office, four years each;  When running for a second term of office, the CEV President should be supported by at least five National Federations (not necessarily by his own);  As soon as he is declared an official candidate for the post of CEV President for the second term, he will have no powers as CEV President two months before the election.

Mr Philippe SCHÜRMANN (LIE) suggested changing the mandate of the CEV President in order to align it with the one applied to the FIVB President. He stated that this provision would be in line with the terms of the IOC Presidency as well as with those of a number of additional sports organisations, possibly providing the CEV President with more time to define and implement his vision and strategy for the development of Volleyball.

Mr BORIČIĆ was of the opinion that eight years for Europe were enough, while the political situation of the FIVB could not be compared with the one in the CEV.

Before proceeding with the introduction of the other changes, Mr FISCHBACHER asked the General Assembly to vote if they would like to amend the proposal of the change of the future presidential term from maximum four plus four years to eight plus four years.

DECISION The proposal of the amendment of the presidential term was turned down by the CEV General Assembly by only seven votes in favour and 46 votes against.

The ELC President then referred to the new version of the Mediation Chamber Regulations - to be called Legal Chamber Regulations – which came following the proposal of the Legal Coordinator to provide a CEV body with the disciplinary and alternative dispute resolutions competences. In order to achieve that, the former Mediation Chamber had been renewed in its structure, competences and procedures. It was a phenomenal improvement for National Federations, Clubs, Players and Officials. Any decision of this body would be subject to an “appeal” before the FIVB bodies. The fundamental rights of the parties were guaranteed and the procedures were in accordance with the Sports Law.

Mr FISCHBACHER answered a question regarding the CEV Board of Administration candidates to be appointed by the CEV President and the possibility to have a separate vote on it. He then submitted the CEV Statutes and Legal Chamber Regulations to a vote of the CEV General Assembly.

DECISION The CEV Statutes and Legal Chamber Regulations were approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly as proposed in the Congress handbook.

The complete set of the approved Regulatory Framework were uploaded on the CEV website.

15. XXXIX CEV General Assembly

Mr Julius BRINK informed the audience that the 2018 Congress was proposed to take place one day earlier than the FIVB Congress at the same location. He then noted that the date and location would be communicated at a later stage.

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The CEV President explained that this proposal was made in order to optimise logistical, financial and practical aspects for the European National Federations. In the past, the CEV organised their annual Congress only a couple of weeks after the FIVB Congress with many of the same people participating in the two meetings.

16. Miscellaneous

The CEV Senior Vice-President, Mr Renato ARENA, awarded the newly appointed National Federation Presidents on behalf of the CEV with the Golden Pin:

 Mr Guy JUWET – BELGIUM  Mr Aliaksandr PIASETSKI – BELARUS  Mr Ante BAKOVIC – CROATIA  Mr Marek PAKOSTA – CZECH REPUBLIC  Mr Georgios KARAMPETSOS – GREECE  Mr Eviatar DOTAN – ISRAEL  Mr Pietro Bruno CATTANEO – ITALY  Mr Darius CERKA – LITHUANIA  Mr Artur ROMASCAN – MOLDOVA  Mr Zoran GAJIC – SERBIA

In the absence of any comments or questions, Mr Julius BRINK reminded everyone about the workshops for delegates which were schedules in four sessions for that afternoon, following the closing of the General Assembly. The workshops were to provide the delegates with an opportunity to exchange views and insights on the most relevant topics.

17. Closing Speech of the CEV President

The CEV President thanked everyone for their hard work and dedication as members of the CEV - one European Volleyball Team – and asserted that he was looking forward to intensifying the efforts of all the stakeholders to communicate and cooperate even closer in the future. He then officially closed the 2017 CEV General Assembly.

Friday 1 September 2017 CEV GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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18. Annexes

Annex 1 Internal Audit Report 2016 Annex 2 External Audit Report 2016 Annex 3 Updated 2017 Budget and 2018 Budget Annex 4 CEV Coaches Commission Presentation Annex 5 2019 CEV Volleyball European Championship Annex 6 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship Annex 7 Special Projects - EBVC Annex 8 Development Projects Annex 9 Communication Projects Annex 10 CEV Statutes and Legal Chamber Regulations

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XXXVII GENERAL ASSEMBLY

MINUTES

Place: Luxembourg Congress, Luxembourg (LUX)

Date(s): Saturday, 12 November 2016

RECORD OF ATTENDANCE A. CEV Board of Administration ...... 4 B. Internal auditor ...... 4 C. Special guests ...... 4 D. Delegates of the affiliated National Federations ...... 5 E. Observers ...... 6 F. Interpreters ...... 6 G. CEV Office ...... 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVII General Assembly ...... 7 1.1. Welcome Speech by the CEV President Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ ...... 7 2. Installing of the XXXVII General Assembly's Office ...... 7 2.1. Record of Attendance ...... 7 2.2. Confirmation of the Appointment of the Credentials & Checking Commission Members ...... 7 2.3. Report of the Credentials & Checking Commission ...... 7 3. Official Opening of the XXXVII General Assembly ...... 8 4. Approval of the Agenda ...... 8 5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVI General Assembly held in Sofia (BUL) ...... 8 6. FIVB President’s Address ...... 8 7. CEV President’s Address ...... 9 8. Financial Report ...... 10 8.1. Accounts 2015 ...... 10 8.2. Internal Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2015 ...... 10 8.3. External Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2015 ...... 10 8.4. Confirmation of the Internal Auditors ...... 10 8.5. Budget 2016 & 2017 ...... 11 9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook ...... 12 9.1. Comments and Questions ...... 12 9.2. Confirmation of Reports ...... 12 10. Ratification of Coaches Commission President ...... 12 11. CEV Vision and Strategic Plan ...... 12 12. Future Projects ...... 14 12.1. Top Sport Event Concept ...... 14 12.2. Social Media ...... 14 12.3. Beach Volleyball Commission ...... 15 12.4. Cups Commission ...... 16 12.5. Legal Commission ...... 16 12.6. Medical Commission ...... 17 12.7. Refereeing Commission ...... 17 12.8. Sports Organising Commission ...... 18 12.9. Marketing Working Group ...... 18 12.10. Special Projects Future Organisers ...... 19 12.10.1 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball ECH Final ...... 19 12.10.2 2017 CEV Volleyball ECH Azerbaijan & Georgia ‐ Women ...... 19 12.10.3 2017 CEV Volleyball ECH Poland – Men ...... 19 12.10.4 Volley 2018 ‐ The Netherlands ...... 20 12.11. Snow Volleyball ...... 20 13. Development ...... 21 13.1. Special Development Projects National Federations ...... 21

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13.2. Development Projects ...... 22 14. Proposals from National Federations ...... 23 15. Statutes, General Regulations, Disciplinary Regulations, Mediation Chamber, CEV Tribunal ...... 23 16. Election of the vacant CEV Board of Administration Member ...... 23 17. XXXVIII CEV General Assembly ...... 25 18. Miscellaneous ...... 25 19. Closing Speech of the CEV President ...... 25 20. Closing of the XXXVII CEV General Assembly ...... 25 21. Annexes ...... 26

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CEV Board of Administration

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ CEV President M. Renato ARENA Senior Vice-President Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL Vice-President & Treasurer Mr Lubor HALANDA Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Mr Maris PEKALIS Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs Mr Hanno PEVKUR Vice-President Mr Stanislav SHEVCHENKO Vice-President Ms Banu CAN SCHÜRMANN Vice-President Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING Vice-President Mr Miguel Angel QUINTANA CEV Honorary Member Mr Eric ADLER CEV BOA Member Mr Zdeslav BARAČ CEV BOA Member Mr Michel EVERAERT CEV BOA Member Mr Peter KLEINMANN CEV BOA Member Mr Dancho LAZAROV CEV BOA Member Mr Achilleas MAVROMATIS CEV BOA Member Mr Gudmundur Helgi CEV BOA Member THORSTEINSSON

Mr Roman STANISLAVOV ECC President Mr Wojciech CZAYKA ESOC President Mr Alain FISCHBACHER ELC President Mr Luciano GASPARI ERC President Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE EMC President Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI CEV Marketing WG President

Internal auditor

Mr Michel HENNO CEV Auditor

Special guests

Mr Ary S.GRAÇA F° FIVB President Mr Fabio AZEVEDO FIVB General Director Mr Daisuke AKIYMAMA Mikasa General Manager Mr Tomonari OTAKE Mikasa Group Manager International Sales Department Ms Silvia SORDELLI Infront Italy Director TV & Media Mr Christian GÜNTHER Head of Volleyball - the Sportsman Media Group Mr Stefan DEBUS General Director - the Sportsman Media Group Mr Lukas SEILER Managing Director Audiovisual - the Sportsman Media Group Mr Martin KASWURM Chaka2 Managing Director Mr Veit MANNINGER Chaka2 Managing Director Mr Lars HAUE-PEDERSEN TSE Managing Director Ms Heloise LACROIX TSE Consultant Mr Lionel ARLIN Gerflor Sports Federations and Events Manager Mr Julius BRINK CEV General Assembly Moderator

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Delegates of the affiliated National Federations

ALBANIA Erlind PELLUMBI Albens VOKOPOLA ANDORRA Proxy to ESP ARMENIA Karen ASMARYAN AUSTRIA Philipp SEEL AZERBAIJAN Vasila ABULOVA Nargiz ISMAYILOVA BELGIUM Willy BRUNINX Geert DE DOBBELEER BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Milutin POPOVIĆ Draženko HARAČIĆ BELARUS Sergej DANILOV BULGARIA Stanislav NIKOLOV CROATIA Zlatan KOVAČ CYPRUS Franklinos ANDREOU Giorgos STEFANIDIS CZECH REPUBLIC Milan LABASTA Ivan IRO DENMARK Jørgen BENTZEN Mikael TROLLE ENGLAND Richard CALLICOTT SPAIN Agustin MARTIN SANTOS Luis MUCHAGA FLORES ESTONIA Helen VEERMÄE FAROE ISLANDS Magnus TAUSEN Niclas JOENSEN FINLAND Pasi SYDÄNLAMMI Keijo SÄILYNOJA FRANCE Eric TANGUY Annie PEYTAVIN GEORGIA Irakli CHACHUA Andria LEZHAVA GERMANY Hubert MARTENS Jörg ZIEGLER GIBRALTAR Proxy to Spain GREECE Georgios KARAMPETSOS GREENLAND Hans JENSEN HUNGARY Ferenc KOVÁCS Zsolt LUDVIG IRELAND Grainne CULLITON Denise TALLON ICELAND Jason ĺVARSSON ISRAEL Yonatan ALMOG ITALY Pietro Bruno CATTANEO KOSOVO Abedin IBRAHIMI Blerim GERGURI LATVIA Atis SAUSNITIS Ainars DAKSA LIECHTENSTEIN Philippe Schürmann LITHUANIA Marius VASILIAUSKAS Darius CERKA LUXEMBOURG Guy ERPELDING Chantal SCHOMER MOLDOVA Proxy to Serbia Former Yugoslav Republic Zoran KARANOVIĆ of MACEDONIA MALTA David BONNICI MONTENEGRO Cvetko PAJKOVIC Ivan BOSKOVIC MONACO Christian PALMARO NETHERLANDS Peter SPRENGER NORTHERN IRELAND Patrick ELDER (Ulster) NORWAY Kristian GJERSTADBERGET POLAND Jacek KASPRZYK PORTUGAL Vicente Henrique GOLCALVES Teodemiro Emanuel DE CARVALHO DE ARAÚJO ROMANIA Gheorge VISAN Oana SARB RUSSIA Vladimir PATKIN SCOTLAND Scott BORTHWICK SLOVENIA Metod ROPRET Gregor HUMERCA

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SAN MARINO Marco GATTI Federico VALENTINI SERBIA Vladimir GRBIĆ Dragutin ĆUK SWITZERLAND Nora WILLI Werner AUGSBURGER SLOVAKIA Tomáš SINGER SWEDEN Saffet ERAYBAR TURKEY Nilüfer Basak SHIMONSKY UKRAINE Mykhaylo MELNYK WALES Sandra STOLL

Observers

Observer Chinara ALAKBARZADE AZERBAIJAN Observer Karl HAZL AUSTRIA Observer Nejc ZEMLJAK SLOVENIA Observer Jussi JOKINEN FINLAND Observer Thomas BRO-RASMUSSEN DENMARK Observer Peter MORELL DENMARK Observer Patrick MURPHY NORTHERN IRELAND Observer Philippe BEUCHET FRANCE Observer Inara BROKANE LATVIA

Interpreters

Interpreter Odette BUYSE-NEPPER LUXEMBOURG Interpreter Jessica DOMINGUES MOURO LUXEMBOURG

CEV Office

CEV Office Sylvie COLLIGNON CEV Finance Coordinator & Bookkeeper CEV Office Isabelle COLLOT CEV Transfers & Medical Coordinator CEV Office Thorsten ENDRES CEV Administrative Director CEV Office Federico FERRARO CEV Press Officer CEV Office George GAGALIS CEV Beach Volleyball Coordinator CEV Office Niels HOORELBEKE CEV Press Officer CEV Office Vuk KARANOVIĆ CEV Development Coordinator CEV Office Ricardo LEITE CEV Administrative Clerk CEV Office Xavier MANSAT CEV Legal Affairs Coordinator CEV Office Regina ENDERS-MASKOVA CEV Finance Secretary CEV Office Marion MEYERS CEV Marketing Coordinator CEV Office Snezana MISIĆ CEV President's Office CEV Office Kristina NIEMINEN CEV European Championships Secretary CEV Office Dennis PASSIG CEV Beach Volleyball Coordinator CEV Office Marina SELIŠKAR CEV Executive Assistant CEV Office Irene SEÑARIS CEV Competitions Coordinator CEV Office Krzysztof TUROWSKI CEV Competitions Secretary CEV Office Marc VAN DER ELST CEV IT Coordinator CEV Office Francois WATTHEZ CEV Secretary CEV Office Petr ZIKA CEV Marketing Coordinator

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1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVII General Assembly

1.1. WELCOME SPEECH BY THE CEV PRESIDENT MR ALEKSANDAR BORIČIĆ

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ, the CEV President, welcomed everyone present at the XXXVII CEV General Assembly and encouraged the delegates to join in the event as a truly united Volleyball family. He asserted that the meeting, with new management and new ideas, would be conducted in a way different from the previous years, focusing on discussions on future projects in the spirit of solidarity, cohesion, mutual respect and fair play.

He then introduced Mr Julius BRINK, a Beach Volleyball Olympic Gold medallist, as the facilitator of the event, and urged everyone present at the Congress to actively participate in the dialogue that would follow in order to exchange as many invaluable opinions as possible on the future of Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Snow Volleyball.

2. Installing of the XXXVII General Assembly's Office

2.1. RECORD OF ATTENDANCE

Mr Julius BRINK expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the CEV General Assembly as a spokesperson and swiftly moved on to the record of attendance.

2.2. CONFIRMATION OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION MEMBERS

Mr BRINK announced the four members of the Credentials & Checking Commission:

 Mr Jörg ZIEGLER (GER) - Chairman  Mr Ivan BOŠKOVIĆ (MNE)  Mr Darius CERKA (LTU)  Mr Niclas JOENSEN (FAR)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the composition of the Credentials & Checking Commission was approved by the General Assembly.

2.3. REPORT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION

Mr ZIEGLER informed the General Assembly that all Credential and Proxy Letters had been verified and that everything was found to be in accordance with the CEV Statutes. There were 53 National Federations present and 3 National Federations validly represented by proxy, making it a total of 56.

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3. Official Opening of the XXXVII General Assembly

Based on the report of the Credential Checking Commission, Mr BORIČIĆ declared the XXXVII General Assembly as officially open.

4. Approval of the Agenda

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the agenda of the XXXVII General Assembly was officially approved.

5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXVI General Assembly held in Sofia (BUL)

DECISION: In the absence of any remarks or comments, the minutes of the XXXVI General Assembly held in Sofia (BUL) on 16 – 17 October 2015 were officially approved.

6. FIVB President’s Address

Dr Ary S. GRAÇA F° thanked the CEV President for the invitation to participate in the event as he saw it as an important opportunity to demonstrate to the CEV that Europe could fully count on the support from the FIVB.

He went on to explain that his intention is to run the FIVB like a company but also that he will not forget that it is a sport institution and that they must be modern in their approach. They have to stop thinking like in the past and have to look forward. This must be done together with Europe, as Europe is the first priority for the FIVB. There is some hard work ahead but together, it will be easier. The cooperation will be greater and the CEV can count on the FIVB to achieve it.

He referred to a meeting he had held with the CEV President the day before, saying that both institutions had come to an understanding on many topics and were determined to work hand in hand on all the issues that had not been resolved yet.

He also clearly stated that his biggest priority during his presence at the CEV General Assembly was not to preach but to listen, as he was very keen on learning from the experience and insights of all those Volleyball family members who were willing to share them. He also mentioned that he was available to discuss any topic with the delegates attending the Congress and re-emphasized the fact that the CEV and the FIVB have to work together.

He thanked the CEV President one more time and wished everybody a successful Congress.

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7. CEV President’s Address

Mr BORIČIĆ took the podium thanking Dr GRAÇA for his openness and commitment, and vowed that the CEV was ready to work hard not just for the sake of European Volleyball but Volleyball everywhere, and a good relationship between the CEV and the FIVB was for him a top priority.

He insisted on the fact that the CEV focused too much in the past on administration, technical aspects and regulations and not enough on the sport. Since last year, many changes started taking place and as a result, the CEV gained respect from the FIVB by showing the start of a new era. Several problems between the CEV and the FIVB were also solved and the CEV was grateful for the great support provided by the FIVB.

He then moved on to talk about the necessity of changing a lot of the traditional but outdated approaches and procedures in order to adapt to the requirements of the new era and the new technologies so that Volleyball could be promoted on a bigger scale. He emphasized the fact that the mentality had to change in order to move forward and that the CEV had no choice but to improve the sport with the use of these new technologies. Even though the CEV is a sport institution, it needs to start working like a business. Without money, there cannot be any investment. The investment needs to happen across all 56 federations and all involved need to collaborate differently, especially with outside organisations.

He mentioned the need to increase revenues by collaborating with organisations outside of the Volleyball family, such as national authorities, the International Olympic Committee, the EU, etc.

He also added that there would no longer be CEV development centres, as he would want to allocate funds on a project based and not to centres where there is no activity. This means that tender for projects should be submitted for funds to be invested widely across the National Federations.

The CEV President spoke about some of the many countries he had visited over the past year, alone or with the Senior Vice President and Vice Presidents, where he had seen very positive attitudes and developments in terms of increasing the value of Volleyball. He was fully supportive of all projects, which would allow the CEV to invest in the future, and stated that while dedicating a lot of time to improving communication with all National Federations, he was looking forward to seeing more action and openness in the future. He also noticed an increase in the value of Volleyball in the many countries he visited (Malta, Denmark, Albania, and Slovenia just to name a few) and acknowledged that these federations had the respect from their national authorities.

He added that National Federation had to take the plunge and become organisers themselves to gain more experience and understanding about big events. This will allow them to become known on the Volleyball map. He highlighted the changes already made in the European Championship number of teams going from 16 to 24 and the interest shown by some Federations to organise the 2019 and 2021 editions.

With regard to the definition of Top Events, he mentioned that this definition would be clarified early 2017 and that it would vary depending on the countries organising events, as in some Federations, some events can be considered as Top Events and not in others. Regardless, the CEV will provide full support if required.

He asked for all commission and working group presidents to come up with proposals and a new vision for Volleyball to be developed within the 2 years. Proposals should also come from the National Federation, which should not be reticent to share them with the CEV Office. Communication and openness are the key to success.

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He also stressed out the need for Volleyball athletes to be promoted more extensively on the international market in order to attract wider interest when achieving great success such a Gold medals.

He also insisted on the fact that National Federations problems are also CEV problems as they are all volleyball related. He gave the example of the Zonal Associations which definition needed to be clarified. They are currently more political and administrative than sport-oriented.

The CEV President also stated that knowledge must be brought to the National Federations and as a result, he thanked the CEV office for designing a new e-learning software. This software is free of charge and available to all the CEV National Federations with further modules already in the pipeline.

He thanked the attendees for their attention and ended his speech.

8. Financial Report

8.1. ACCOUNTS 2015

Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL, CEV Vice-President and Treasurer, took the podium to talk about the CEV financial report. He asserted that the CEV Financial team worked hard to ensure transparency and consistency of all CEV Accounts, generating a healthy financial position and income resources. He referred to the Congress Handbook for details of expenditures and revenues, and stated that according to the Internal and External CEV Reports, 2015 CEV Accounts had been found compliant with the Luxembourgish Law and FIVB Regulations.

8.2. INTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2015

As laid down in the CEV Statutes, the 2015 CEV accounts were subject to an internal audit by Mr Michel HENNO and Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ, CEV Internal Auditors.

The written internal audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.3. EXTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2015

As laid down in the CEV Statutes and Luxembourg's legislation, the 2015 CEV accounts were also subject to an external audit by the company Grant Thornton Lux Audit SA.

The written external audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.4. CONFIRMATION OF THE INTERNAL AUDITORS

In the absence of any other proposal, Mr MUTLUGIL asked the General Assembly to confirm the internal auditors for the next working period as proposed by the CEV Board of Administration:

 Mr Michel HENNO (BEL)  Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ (FIN)

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DECISION The General Assembly unanimously confirmed Mr HENNO and Mr ALA-NISSILÄ as CEV Internal Auditors for the next working period. In the absence of any other questions or remarks, the 2015 CEV Accounts and Reports were also approved by the General Assembly.

8.5. BUDGET 2016 & 2017

Mr MUTLUGIL introduced the updated 2016 budget and proposed 2017 budget.

He highlighted the following points:

 General Management and Executive Committee allocation  Special missions (meetings with the EU and the EOC) and consulting expenses (Future Vision 2016 project)  CEV Commissions and Working Groups (increase of expenditure on all Commissions and the re-establishment of Coaches Commission)  Financial resources budgeted for special projects  Office premises (investment in software and technical innovations) and CEV President Office set-up in Belgrade (Serbia).  European National Teams competitions (increase of financial support for age group organisers)  European League (CEV to pay travel expenses and per diems of International Referees).  Office staff increase (Sport Events, Communication and Development Departments) to manage the workload more effectively and provide better services, support and guidance to all CEV stakeholders  Snow Volleyball included in the budget of Beach Volleyball  Sponsorship and Marketing figures based on the current and signed contracts (less revenue expected from TV rights – focus on TV production and broadcasting rather than on licence fees)  European Cups figures based on the new format of the competition (fewer teams in the League phase of the Champions League and fewer registration fees)  European National Teams competitions’ revenue different from 2015 Accounts due to Olympic Qualifications.

Mr MUTLUGIL noted the sponsorship deal of over one Million EUR, which had been confirmed by the CEV President, and thanked the Russian Volleyball Federation for their input and cooperation on the matter. He informed everyone that as per the decision taken by the CEV Board of Administration, the money would be invested according to the new CEV strategic plan:

 National Team events with the focus on Top Events  European Cups events with the focus on prize money  Development activities of Zonal Associations, National Federations, and Volleyball projects in Europe (including more grass root projects)  Investment in communications with a special focus on social and digital media

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the 2016 & 2017 Budget report was unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

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9. Activity Reports Congress Handbook

9.1. COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

Mr BRINK referred to the fact that 2016 CEV Activity Reports had been sent to all CEV National Federations prior to the Congress with a feedback deadline within which no comments or questions had been received.

9.2. CONFIRMATION OF REPORTS

DECISION In the absence of any questions or comments, the 2016 CEV Congress Handbook Activity Reports were unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

10. Ratification of Coaches Commission President

As per the CEV Statutes, following the decision of the CEV Board of Administration to re-establish the CEV Coaches Commission, Mr BRINK asked the General Assembly to ratify the proposal of the CEV Board of Administration to appoint Mr Philippe BLAIN as the CEV Coaches Commission President.

DECISION Philippe BLAIN was unanimously approved as CEV Coaches Commission President

The CEV President emphasised the importance of re-establishing the CEV Coaches Commission as a body comprising Volleyball specialists, capable of bringing in the necessary expertise, thereby improving the quality of coaching in Volleyball. He then referred to the fact that not many National Federations had come forward with proposals for Commission Members, and urged for a more proactive attitude, noting that the Commission should comprise not only top Volleyball coaches but also Beach Volleyball experts and coaches focused on grassroots levels (i.e. school festivals)

Mr BORIČIĆ referred to the CEV Board of Administration decision to introduce an Athletes Working Group and asserted that it would include both former and active players, combining experience with unspoiled enthusiasm and lots of positive energy in order to promote Volleyball and its stars at all possible levels.

The concrete composition of this new body will be finalised within next year.

11. CEV Vision and Strategic Plan

Mr Brink invited the TSE representatives, Mr Lars HAUE-PEDERSEN and Ms Heloise LACROIX, to address the CEV General Assembly with the presentation on the CEV Vision and Strategic Plan, the result of a collective effort involving all CEV National Federations, CEV Board of Administration and Executive Committee, as well as the CEV staff.

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Ms LACROIX introduced the topic by describing the process of formulating the plan: a four-step process consisting of an analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy testing followed by strategy finalisation. She noted that the strategy was currently in the final stages of the testing phase. She then presented the structure of the proposed CEV Strategy 2020:

1. The Core (Vision, Mission and Values) 2. The Guiding Principles 3. The Strategic Priorities.

Mr HAUE-PEDERSEN then elaborated on the structure, emphasising the fact that the proposal was still tentative and open to discussion. He noted that CEV’s success depended on a strong sense of togetherness and collective collaboration. He spoke about the significance of CEV’s support and commitment towards all its members. He pointed out, however, that the commitment should be mutual by all means, and members should be ready to work hard for the success of Volleyball across Europe and not just in their countries.

When speaking about the Guiding Principles, Mr HAUE-PEDERSEN urged the importance of prioritising exposure over revenues in order to achieve long-term benefits as well as a focus on developing competitions in larger markets where promotion and income were easier to generate. When faced with difficult decisions, the CEV and their members should allow for some temporary inconsistencies and be willing to take calculated risks.

The Strategic Priorities covered three areas that the TSE analysis had found particularly important:

 Products: general promotional material that could be adapted according to the needs of the various member federations, focus on major competitions and further exposure of Beach and Snow Volleyball.

 Promotion: focus on female Volleyball and female athletes in general, as well as on the specific attributes of Volleyball (e.g. non-violence) as opposed to other popular team sports.

 Partnership: a new commercial partner programme targeted not only at potential sponsors but also on host cities/countries as well as European organisations to generate wider exposure, recognition, prestige and a wide-range of contacts and relations.

Ms LACROIX finalised the presentation inviting all CEV National Federations to provide their feedback to TSE during the CEV Congress and/or in the following weeks. She noted that the final version of CEV Vision and Strategic Plan should be delivered based on the feedback from the National Federations to the CEV Board of Administration for final approval in 2017.

The complete TSE presentation on Strategy 2020 can be found annexed to these minutes.

Before announcing a coffee break, Mr BRINK gave a word of welcome to the Volleyball Federation of Kosovo having joined the FIVB and consequently the CEV Volleyball family following the official affiliation at the FIVB Congress. This was followed by a comment from the National Volleyball Federation of Serbia expressing a strong disapproval of the affiliation of Kosovo.

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12. Future Projects

12.1. TOP SPORT EVENT CONCEPT

Mr Renato ARENA, CEV Senior Vice-President, presented the CEV Top Sports Events concept explaining that the idea behind was to create marketing opportunities and to add value to the CEV’s top competitions. He mentioned the most distinct features of such events, such as a full competition hall with a great atmosphere and amplitude of action and entertainment for the spectators to deliver a total event experience.

Mr ARENA named the following events as part of the Top Sport Events Concept:

 CEV Volleyball European Championships Final Round (M&W)  CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final (M&W)  CEV Volleyball Champions League Final Fours (M&W)  Volleyball & Beach Volleyball Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament (M&W)

Mr ARENA noted that these events would be extensively promoted and would hopefully attract lots of positive attention. This should be achieved thanks to the use of a wide spectrum of entertainment and TV exposure, thereby reaching a larger global audience. Branding and the use of state-of-the-art technology would provide opportunities to attract organisers and improve the image and perception of Volleyball. Another key aspect of such events would be the close collaboration with national, regional and local authorities to raise financial resources, which could be further invested in the sport.

One more aspect not to be ignored will be the increased use of social media to engage the audience via quizzes, contests, MVP voting polls, tips and photos, all these delivered via the CEV social media platforms for the greater benefit of all.

The complete Top Sport Event Concept presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.2. SOCIAL MEDIA

Mr Federico FERRARO, CEV’s Press Officer, spoke about CEV’s social media project, stating that the overall goal was to make communication not only as easy and instant as possible but also more effective. He noted that while information had so far been central to the various communication channels, the CEV was going to focus more on displaying emotions and emotive images. Furthermore, in order to promote Volleyball stars and inspire young players, there would be more video content published on the website and the social media accounts on our players.

There would also be more emphasis on gathering all the images and videos from events in order to have some history from a visual point of view.

Mr FERRARO mentioned CEV’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts, which had been growing steadily over the past two years, and stated that each had their content produced separately, with a special focus on younger generations who were more interested in visual rather than textual communication. They are not familiar with our competitions structure and the CEV needs to make it easier to understand via the above means.

He then referred to projects such as “Take the Challenge” and “Behind the scenes” videos, and said that CEV was all the time looking for new ways to promote video content and CEV competitions, e.g. by encouraging organisers to produce promotional clips. New social media accounts were continuously

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being created for the different competitions, e.g. EuroVolley and CEV Champions League, and the CEV were looking into restyling the CEV website to align it with the latest trends in online communication. Future organisers and National Federations are encouraged to produce video contents and innovative promotional clips. These are great tools, which will inspire people to take up volleyball or come to the competitions.

New accounts should be opened as well for competition specific material (Facebook/Twitter) in order to the audience not to be bombarded with too much information, which might not be relevant to their interest.

Mr FERRARO also mentioned the plan to overhaul the current CEV website and make it more engaging to a wider audience.

Finally, he reached out to the delegates and urged them to share the CE social media channels, resulting in an easy, instant, effective and better communication. The goals set for the future cannot be reached or achieved without the cooperation from the National Federations.

The complete Social Media presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.3. BEACH VOLLEYBALL COMMISSION

Mr Michel EVERAERT, the President of the CEV Beach Volleyball Commission, began his presentation by noting that Beach Volleyball was a great recreational sport presenting many opportunities for growth, as it was highly visible and very attractive among young people. Being an outdoor sport played on sand, Beach Volleyball was a much softer version of indoor Volleyball and attracted also older but fit people craving some outdoor activities after spending most of their days in indoor environments.

Mr EVERAERT then referred to the fact that in 2016 there had been ten European countries playing Beach Volleyball in the Olympics, compared to only six European countries in indoor Volleyball. He further remarked that the CEV wanted more European teams to play in the Olympics and World Championships, and Beach Volleyball presented a great opportunity for National Federations of lower categories who could otherwise have difficulties qualifying. The comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of Volleyball with Beach Volleyball also revealed that many of the strengths of Volleyball were complementary to the weaknesses found in Beach Volleyball, e.g. few coaches in Beach Volleyball versus many coaches in Volleyball. Mr EVERAERT thought they could be used to integrate the two disciplines and to achieve many of the strategic goals set forth by the proposed CEV Strategy 2020.

Mr EVERAERT discussed some plans of the Beach Volleyball Commission, which included promoting elite programmes for Beach Volleyball, integrating the CEV and FIVB Beach Volleyball calendars and developing a sustainable business model for organisers. Moreover, in terms of development, the CEV would offer more support to National Federations in creating Beach Volleyball development programmes, while simplifying the terms and conditions for satellite events and organising targeted seminars to spread knowledge and inspire people.

Finally, by 2020, the Beach Volleyball Commission was determined to have 50 satellite events per year, at least 30 countries with a serious Beach Volleyball programme, a growing number of Beach Volleyball clubs integrated into Volleyball clubs with a full-year programme, and a lot more income for the CEV from Beach Volleyball events.

The complete Beach Volleyball Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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12.4. CUPS COMMISSION

Mr Roman STANISLAVOV, the President of the CEV Cups Commission, reported on the developments within the European Cups system. He discussed the changes in CEV Volleyball Champions League format, and the 3-years detailed programme created to find best solutions to the past issues. He mentioned the fact that CEV Volleyball Champions League had now been made open to all 56 National Federations, which in his opinion was a definite improvement as it gave each country an opportunity to participate. He also noted that the results of 2016 Champions League were the first indicator that things were going in the right direction and marked a new beginning for the competition.

Mr STANISLAVOV mentioned other goals of the Cups Commission, including the creation of high level Volleyball European Cups in order to attract sponsors, increase the prize money and turn the Cups into a prestigious event for all participating clubs, fans and TV. Finally, he spoke about the need to create a specialised team of CEV Supervisors for the Champions League to help clubs deliver a “total event experience”.

The complete Cups Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.5. LEGAL COMMISSION

Mr Alain FISCHBACHER, the President of the CEV Legal Commission, presented the Legal Commission strategy, noting that the primary goal of the Commission was to support and help CEV stakeholders in all legal matters whenever necessary, as well as to try to prevent any possible legal issues.

The current work of the Commission was centred on an overview of the CEV Regulatory Framework and an establishment of a new CEV legal body replacing the former Mediation Chamber, called the CEV Legal Chamber, responsible for mediation, arbitration, protests and disciplinary issues. As regards CEV institutions, the Legal Commission was working on fair and transparent candidature and election procedures, as well as on clear and comprehensive definitions of competences, in accordance with the FIVB Regulations and the respective Law of Luxembourg.

Mr FISCHBACHER also mentioned the discussions on manipulation in sports and its possible threats to Volleyball, asserting that the Legal Commission was preparing to deal with such threats, if necessary. He also urged all CEV National Federations to look into the topic and make sure that they had some bodies and procedures capable of handling any such issues, and noted that the CEV was closely collaborating with the FIVB Legal Department on these issues in order to be ready to solve and prevent them.

To conclude, Mr FISCHBACHER informed the General Assembly of the planned meeting of the Legal Commission early in 2017, which included a joint meeting of the Legal Chamber members and the Legal Commission to work on the framework for the new body to deal with legal procedures and claims. He also declared that the Legal Commission would have a draft of the new CEV Regulatory Framework ready by March 2017, following the collection and review of feedback from CEV stakeholders, and would present it to the CEV Board of Administration.

The complete Legal Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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12.6. MEDICAL COMMISSION

Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE, the President of the CEV Medical Commission, spoke about two major projects of the Medical Commission:

 Medical care  Education.

As regards medical care, he pointed out the busy competition calendar, which very often meant that players had no time to rest and regenerate between the various tournaments. He emphasised the fact that the numbers of injuries in sports were increasing and that in Volleyball itself, 70% of all international players took supplements on a regular basis. These facts were quite concerning for the Medial Commission and Mr HOLZGRAEFE asserted that they were working on solutions to give teams more time to regenerate between competitions and, whenever necessary, to be treated properly.

In terms of education, Mr HOLZGRAEFE stated that despite the fact that sports medicine and anti- doping knowledge were increasing, there was still a strong need to educate coaches and players as to which drugs and supplements could lead to positive drug test results. He said a new list would be made available early in 2017, and that it would include many changes of many common agents, such as caffeine, nicotine and codeine. The Medical Commission monitoring programme would aim to ensure that the list was carefully read by coaches and players to prevent positive results, and Mr HOLZGRAEFE urged all National Federations to ask questions in case of any doubts.

The complete Medical Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.7. REFEREEING COMMISSION

Mr Luciano GASPARI, the President of the CEV Refereeing Commission, spoke about the future goals of the Refereeing Commission, noting four main areas of focus:

 Referees mentality makeover  New generation of referees  Education of referees  Better cooperation with the FIVB.

In particular, he emphasised the fact that referees would need to change their way of acting and interacting on court, taking into account the expectations of the audience and establishing a closer human contact with the players and fans. As regards the age of referees, Mr GASPARI mentioned that currently most International Referees were above the age of 40, and that the Refereeing Commission was aiming to work in close collaboration with National Refereeing Commission in the next three years on attracting younger generations of referees. In the light of this, and to improve the quality of the work of referees in general, the Refereeing Commission was determined to spread the use of the e-learning platform as well as strive for innovation and new technology. Finally, he mentioned the appointments of European Referees to European competitions, which would be done in collaboration with the FIVB to ensure referees received a reasonable number of matches per year.

The complete Refereeing Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

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12.8. SPORTS ORGANISING COMMISSION

Mr Wojciech CZAYKA, the President of the CEV Sports Organising Commission, took the podium to discuss the key priorities of the Sports Organising Commission. This included focusing on Top Events, introducing a clear and consistent procedure for the Drawing of Lots, pushing organisers to work closely with the CEV on the organisation of Top Events and making all CEV events more attractive for organisers.

Mr CZAYKA noted the introduction of the new CEV Volleyball European Championship concept, with 24 teams participating in the Final Phase starting with 2019. He mentioned the new bidding procedure for the organisers of the Final Phase, with the possibility to have as many as four co-hosts from four different countries. The competition format would be decided on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration all the circumstances and the input from the organisers, to make it as attractive as possible in order to deliver a “Total Event Experience”.

The Sports Organising Commission was also updating the “CEV Organisation Guidelines for National Team Competitions”, working on the international calendar as well as on the evaluation of the FIVB National Federation categorisation in cooperation with the Beach Volleyball Commission. Furthermore, Mr CZAYKA mentioned the revision of match protocol to align it with the FIVB one, as well as a review of reports from single matches and tournaments and the introduction of the Event Licence Concept for competition halls.

The complete Sports Organising Commission presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

Mr BRINK reminded the General Assembly of the open bidding for 2019 and 2021 European Championships and urged all National Federations to turn to the CEV Office for further details.

12.9. MARKETING WORKING GROUP

Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI, the President of the CEV Marketing Working Group, began his presentation by thanking the CEV Management for the organisation of the CEV Marketing Working Group, stating that the group’s main strategic goal was to support the CEV in getting financial resources from outside of the European Volleyball Family. He asserted that the four members of the group had the experience and the capabilities necessary to achieve that goal.

Mr PRZEDPELSKI was adamant about the need to improve the value of Volleyball by promoting the CEV European Championship events as well as the Final of the CEV Champions League. He spoke about improving TV broadcasting standards, expansion of TV and new media distribution where the content for the media would be reshaped to make it more attractive and appealing. Moreover, he pushed for the idea of new modern branding implementation, not just in the halls but also outside, as well as for the implementation of new technologies to engage and entertain the public and to attract the younger generations of fans and followers.

The Marketing Working Group was also reportedly working on a new partnership programme for host cities and countries, along with the CEV and the FIVB, to promote the organising country and city, and bring more spectators from the other participating countries. The CEV would play a key role in helping to create such programmes and in cooperating with local governments and institutions. Another area of focus was the promotion of top players as heroes and key personalities in Volleyball, as well as the creation of new marketing data to find and attract new sponsors, e.g. by promoting Volleyball as a family

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sport. Together with the organisers, the group was also aiming to create dedicated hospitality programmes for sponsors and VIPs.

The complete Marketing Working Group presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.10. SPECIAL PROJECTS FUTURE ORGANISERS

12.10.1 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball ECH Final

Mr Ainars DAKSA, LAT NF Secretary General described Jurmala in Latvia as a superb location for 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final, with natural beaches, accommodation close to the competition venue, dedication of the local staff as well as the great support from local authorities and local heroes. He then displayed a video to promote the event.

12.10.2 2017 CEV Volleyball ECH Azerbaijan & Georgia - Women

Ms Nargiz ISMAYILOVA, AZE NF Sport Competition Manager, and Mr Andria LEZHAVA, GEO NF Head of International Affairs, warmly greeted the guests of the General Assembly, eagerly inviting everyone to participate in the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women jointly hosted by the two countries. They then showed of a promotional video of the event.

Mr BRINK added that the Drawing of Lots for the competition in Azerbaijan & Georgia was scheduled to take place on 24 November 2016 in Baku.

12.10.3 2017 CEV Volleyball ECH Poland – Men

Mr Wojciech CZAYKA, as the Organising Director of 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Men, confirmed the four host cities of the event in Poland as Gdansk, Szczecin, Katowice and Krakow, with the starting date set as 23 August 2017 and the Final on 3 September 2017. He elaborated on the four cities, providing some detailed information on the sport halls booked for the tournaments, and then he spoke about the promotion of the event, noting the use of social media, e.g. the presentation of participating teams on Facebook.

Mr CZAYKA stated that Poland was closely cooperating with the CEV and the participating federations, in order to provide followers with accurate information about all events planned in the framework of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men. He then mentioned that Polish TV portal called Polsat TV would be used to promote the event, and that they would soon launch a weekly programme presenting the event and the participating teams. Furthermore, the host cities were cooperating with the Polish Volleyball Federation on the promotion of the event, organising social events and preparing tourist packages called “Visit Poland and enjoy Volleyball”.

Mr CZAYKA also informed the General Assembly that the Drawing of Lots for the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Men was scheduled for 15 November 2016 in Krakow.

The complete 2017 CEV Volleyball ECH Poland - Men presentation can be found annexed to these minutes.

Lunch Break

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12.10.4 Volley 2018 - The Netherlands

Mr Michel EVERAERT, the Secretary General of the Dutch Volleyball Federation, took the podium and outlined the details of three Olympic disciplines to be jointly staged in The Netherlands in 2018 in one event referred to as Volley 2018.

The 2018 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship, 2018 World Championship in Sitting Volleyball as well as the 2018 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship were scheduled for after the 2018 Football World Cup, namely for 13-22 July 2018, engaging many different cities. The Dutch Federation were planning to add smaller approach events, side events, as well as a Grass Root Volleyball programme to connect the three disciplines, thereby demonstrating that they can be combined and motivate the Volleyball community to engage more actively and in more diverse ways and manner. Mr EVERAERT spoke about one big final event planned in the city of The Hague, bringing the different cities, provinces and governments together, connecting all the fans of Volleyball not just from The Netherlands but also from abroad. He further mentioned that the plan fitted very well with the Dutch Government strategy at local, regional and national level and would create great social, economic and sport value for all the stakeholders.

Mr EVERAERT asserted that all the tournaments would be played in top sport facilities, both outdoor and indoor, and the side events would be organised to attract children, as they would offer a lot of kids’ activities, grass root programmes and a huge fan zone in every city.

The goal of the organisers was to top the Volleyball World Championship of 2015. The Final would combine the Finals of the three respective disciplines in one city, The Hague, and one venue, Sportcampus Zuiderpark, and would include side events, such as mass Volleyball activities and tournaments, street artists, fan zones and a final party on Saturday night.

The complete presentation of Volley 2018 The Netherlands can be found annexed to these minutes.

12.11. SNOW VOLLEYBALL

Mr Martin KASWURM, CEO of Chaka2, presented the developments in Snow Volleyball since the 2015 CEV General Assembly, starting with a video depicting some of the highlights of 2016 Snow Volleyball Tour where many professionals had engaged in activities with kids. He then referred to the fact that Chaka2 had signed a partnership contract with both the CEV and the FIVB and were confident of the future of Snow Volleyball.

Mr KASWURM spoke about the CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour 2017, which would include more stops, opening new markets and new opportunities for growth. He enumerated five key factors that Chaka2 would be focused on in the next year:

 More athletes and countries (20 nationalities in 2016)  Better communication with the National Federations  Focus on social media and marketing  Registration and ranking to be elaborated in cooperation with the CEV Beach and Snow Volleyball Department  Host city concept (to get cities more involved in the event).

Chaka2 were also collaborating with the CEV Communications Department on Media Planning, focusing on such aspects as increasing page impressions on the homepage, pushing the social media

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and cooperation agreements (e.g. signing with Volleywood – one of the biggest Volleyball blogs), generating awareness and working closer with ambassadors.

Mr KASWURM proudly announced that the Tour in 2017 would begin in Slovenia (for the first time), followed by Switzerland, France (opening new markets in the south of the country), Czech Republic (so far top in terms of player participation), Austria, Liechtenstein and Italy. As regards Snow Volleyball Development Plan with the CEV and the FIVB, they were hoping to establish a strong tour in Europe, creating additional value for the world of Volleyball and adding their value to making Volleyball the number one family sport.

Furthermore, Mr KASWURM announced that the first Snow Volleyball European Championship is planned for 2018. Applications for hosting the event can be handed in from now on

The complete presentation of Snow Volleyball can be found annexed to these minutes.

13. Development

13.1. SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS NATIONAL FEDERATIONS

Mr Magnus TAUSEN, the President of the Faroese Volleyball Federation, began the presentation on the Faroese development project called “Inspired through Flogbørn”, by providing some information about the Faroese Islands. He noted that Volleyball was the third most popular sport in the country and it had started with Russian fishermen who had brought it with them when they came to the harbour and invited locals to join in the sport with them. After being introduced to teachers, Volleyball had found its way to Faroese schools and since then it had grown immensely, with most of the activity based on voluntary work.

Mr TAUSEN emphasised the fact that the majority of Volleyball players in the Faroese Islands were under the age of 18, and that all competitions organised for seniors were done for juniors and kids, using the same facilities, as the demand was high. The Faroese Volleyball Association took their CEV membership very seriously as they saw it as vital for their sustainability and further growth and Mr TAUSEN noted that the NEVZA and SCD Championships constituted great highlights for the Faroese Volleyball players and fans, being hard to achieve and worth every effort. In 2016, the Faroese Volleyball Association hosted at the same time the Qualification Round for the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship SCD - Women as well as the first round of the 2018 FIVB World Championship – Women – European Qualification. The double-event was a big success: live national TV coverage, halls full of spectators, etc. The event had been organised with support and guidance from the CEV, and the experience had inspired the Faroese to further develop their National League and National Cup and to start working on new projects for the future.

The “Flogbørn”, roughly translated as “Flykids”, had so far been the biggest project in the history of the Faroese Volleyball Association. It had started in August 2016 and was expected to continue in 2017, with the participation of a well-known and respected Danish Volleyball personality, Mr Peter Morell. Mr TAUSEN explained that “Flogbørn” was a game for children aged 6-12 (approximate range, as capability was the most important admission criterion), played on a court in teams of four, at five different levels of difficulty. At level one, the kids would grab and throw the ball, and each level up would build on more detail, finally turning into a real Volleyball game at level five.

Mr TAUSEN asserted that the game provided a lot of movement and entertainment for all, involving not just trainers but also parents who were working together across teams in a friendly learning

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environment. The teachers and schools were cooperating with Volleyball clubs and the energy levels were high and constantly increasing, as the game had proven very effective, with kids learning the basic techniques of Volleyball much faster than with traditional methods.

The complete presentation of the Faroese project of “Flogbørn” can be found annexed to these minutes.

13.2. DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Mr Vuk KARANOVIC, CEV Development Coordinator, presented the future activities of CEV Development, highlighting the following priorities of the CEV Leadership:

 Grass root projects (a four-level programme, see below)  Focus on National Federations of category 1,2 and 3 (bridging the gap between them and the National Federations of category 4 and 5)  Engaging with young generations (bring Volleyball to playgrounds, school yards, etc., follow the younger generation and make Volleyball more appealing to them)  E-learning (education as important part of CEV Development activities)  Locating non-Volleyball funds (e.g. Erasmus+ Programme).

As regards the CEV Grass root programme, Mr KARANOVIC elaborated on the following four levels:

1. The CEV in collaboration with the National Federations as the foundation of the programme pyramid, introducing Volleyball and Beach Volleyball activities to a large number of kids (with the CEV providing the know-how, implementation and material, and the National Federations running the project in the respective countries). 2. Clubs and schools working together to attract more kids to Volleyball, helping the physical education teachers in the implementation of Volleyball in their respective schools as part of the curriculum or as after-school activity. 3. Coaches and teachers supported by the respective National Coaches Commissions, providing Volleyball exercises to make the game more interesting for kids. 4. Kids and future players at the top of the pyramid provided with a bright and physically active future.

The CEV also set out to achieve increased numbers of licenced players in age categories and increased numbers of licenced coaches, as well as to attract Physical Education teachers to actively participate in Volleyball and have new Volleyball schools and clubs. Moreover, the CEV would like to see National Federations grow from their experience and open new marketing possibilities by improving their brand image.

Mr KARANOVIC noted that the e-learning programme had been created to help CEV stakeholders (Referees, Coaches, Organisers, Officials, etc.) by providing a Campus with various learning modules. The content of the whole CEV Campus had been developed in-house, meaning that no extra financial resources had to be used. As far as locating non-Volleyball funds was concerned, the CEV were planning to use the location of the CEV Office in the proximity of major European Union institutions to raise resources from EU funds.

The complete presentation of the CEV Development Projects Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

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14. Proposals from National Federations

No proposals received.

15. Statutes, General Regulations, Disciplinary Regulations, Mediation Chamber, CEV Tribunal

Mr FISCHBACHER announced that during the recent CEV Board of Administration meeting, it had been decided to open the scope of candidatures for the CEV Champions League Final Four organisation. Therefore, it was no longer necessary to qualify for the Play-off Phase to be eligible as organisers, and the application was open to other entities, not just National Federations and Volleyball clubs but also the Volleyball League or sport promoters, giving the CEV more possibility to choose the best organiser for this high-level event.

16. Election of the vacant CEV Board of Administration Member

Mr BRINK referred to the resignation of Mr Pawel PAPKE as CEV Board of Administration Member, and the resulting need to elect a new member to replace him.

Mr FISCHBACHER informed the General Assembly that the information pertaining to the voting would be displayed on the screen throughout the process. He then read out the official list of six candidates for the vacant position as follows:

 Mr Milan LABASTA (Czech Republic)  Ms Annie PEYTAVIN (France)  Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI (Poland)  Mr George VISAN (Romania)  Mr Saffet ERAYBAR (Sweden)  Mr Andria LEZHAVA (Georgia).

After having all candidates were announced, Mr Andria LEZHAVA took the decision to step down from the procedure and withdrew his candidature.

Mr FISCHBACHER briefly outlined the voting procedure and called on all the National Federations to deposit their ballots at one of the two designated polling stations. When the collection of ballots was finished, the Credential Commission left the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

In the meantime, Mr BRINK invited the following newly elected Presidents of National European Volleyball Federations to the podium to receive their golden CEV pin handed out by the CEV Senior Vice-President, Mr Renato ARENA:

 Mr Erlind PELLUMBI, Albania  Mr Ferenc KOVACS, Hungary  Mr Abedin IBRAHIMI, Kosovo  Mr Christian PALMARO, Monaco  Mr Peter SPRENGER, The Netherlands

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 Mr Jacek KASPRZYK, Poland  Mr Scott BORTHWICK, Scotland  Ms Nora WILLI, Switzerland  Mr Mykhaylo MELNYK, Ukraine.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returned and Mr FISCHBACHER announced the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 56  Collected ballots: 56  Valid ballots: 56  Invalid ballots: 0  Absolute majority: 29 votes

Obtained votes:

 Mr Milan LABASTA (CZE): 8  Ms Annie PEYTAVIN (FRA): 12  Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI (POL): 26  Mr George VISAN (ROU): 1  Mr Saffet ERAYBAR (SWE): 9

None of the candidates received the absolute majority of votes; therefore, it was necessary to carry out a second round of voting. Mr FISCHBACHER called on all the National Federations to again deposit their ballots at one of the two designated polling stations. When the collection of ballots was finished, the Credential Commission left the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returned and Mr FISCHBACHER announced the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 56  Collected ballots: 56  Valid ballots: 56  Invalid ballots: 0

The following candidate obtained simple majority and was elected Member of the CEV Board of Administration after the second round with simple majority:

PRZEDPELSKI Miroslaw POL 29

Obtained votes:

 Mr Milan LABASTA (CZE): 5  Ms Annie PEYTAVIN (FRA): 15  Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI (POL): 29  Mr George VISAN (ROU): 0  Mr Saffet ERAYBAR (SWE): 7

With this announcement, Mr FISCHBACHER concluded the election of the CEV Board of Administration.

After the election, Mr BORIČIĆ congratulated the newly elected Board of Administration member.

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17. XXXVIII CEV General Assembly

Based on the agreement with the Polish Volleyball Federation and according to the schedule of the 2017 European Championship, Mr BRINK informed the General Assembly that the XXXVIII CEV General Assembly would take place on 1 September 2017 in Krakow, Poland.

18. Miscellaneous

There were no points raised under this section.

19. Closing Speech of the CEV President

The CEV President thanked the FIVB President for his presence at the XXXVII CEV General Assembly. He expressed his joy at the promising new way of collaborating between the FIVB and the CEV, with both of the institutions truly dedicated to improving the value and appreciation of Volleyball both in Europe and globally. He then observed that the new way of conducting the CEV Congress had proven successful, giving all members equal opportunities to express their visions and their needs, thereby demonstrating unity and the spirit of true teamwork.

Mr BORIČIĆ also expressed his gratitude to CEV partners and sponsors, particularly to Mikasa who had sponsored an excellent dinner event the day before, and said he was looking forward to continuing the fruitful cooperation with them. He thanked all the National Federations for a great turn-out at the General Assembly, the CEV Executive Committee and Board of Administration Members for their hard work the past year as well as the CEV Commissions and Working Group Presidents for coming up with some great proposals for the future of Volleyball. Furthermore, he expressed his gratitude to the CEV staff for their hard work in the organisation and coordination of the event, as well as the technicians and interpreters for the efficient delivery of translation during all the various speeches.

Finally yet importantly, Mr BORIČIĆ showed appreciation to Mr BRINK for his excellent job as a moderator of the CEV General Assembly, and wished everyone a safe trip back home.

20. Closing of the XXXVII CEV General Assembly

Mr BRINK also expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the CEV General Assembly as a moderator of the event. He reminded everyone of the dinner plans for the evening and officially closed the XXXVII CEV General Assembly.

Saturday, 12 November 2016 GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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XXXVI GENERAL ASSEMBLY

MINUTES

Place: Hotel Marinela, Sofia (BUL)

Date(s): Friday & Saturday 16 - 17 October 2015

RECORD OF ATTENDANCE A. CEV Board of Administration ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. B. Internal auditors ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. C. CEV Head office ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. D. Special guests ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. E. Delegates of the affiliated national federations ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. F. Observers ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. G. interpreters ...... Error! Bookmark not defined.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVI General Assembly ...... 7 1.1 Welcome Speech by the Bulgarian Minister of Youth and Sport, Mr Krasen KRALEV ...... 7 1.2 Welcome Speech by the President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, Mr Dancho LAZAROV ...... 8 1.3 Welcome Speech by the CEV President, Mr André MEYER ...... 9 2. Installing of the XXXVI General Assembly's Office ...... 10 2.1 Record of Attendance ...... 10 2.2 Confirmation of the Appointment of the Credentials & Checking Commission Members ...... 10 2.3 Report of the Credentials & Checking Commission ...... 10 3. Official Opening of the XXXVI General Assembly...... 11 4. Approval of the Agenda ...... 11 5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXV General Assembly held in Antalya (TUR) ...... 11 6. FIVB President’s Address ...... 11 7. CEV Activity Report 2014/2015 & Report on Marketing Affairs ...... 12 8. Financial Report ...... 17 8.1 Accounts 2014 ...... 17 8.2 Internal Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2014 ...... 17 8.3 External Auditors’ Report – Accounts 2014 ...... 19 8.4 Confirmation of the Internal Auditors ...... 19 8.5 Budget 2016...... 19 9. Commission Reports ...... 20 9.1 Beach Volleyball Commission (Mr Renato ARENA) ...... 20 9.2 Cups Commission (Ms Riet OOMS) ...... 21 9.3 Financial Commission (Mr Philip BERBEN) ...... 23 9.4 Legal Commission (Mr Aloys FISCHER) ...... 23 9.5 Medical Commission (Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE) ...... 24 9.6 Refereeing Commission (Mr Jan REK) ...... 25 9.7 Sports Organising Commission (Mr Pierre MULHEIMS) ...... 26 10. Working Group Reports ...... 29 10.1 Future European Championships ...... 29 10.2 Future European Cups ...... 30 11. Proposals from National Federations ...... 30 12. Statutes, General Regulations, Disciplinary Regulations, Mediation Chamber, CEV Tribunal ...... 31 13. New Media – Progress Report ...... 31 14. Development ...... 33 15. Snow Volleyball ...... 35 16. Zonal Associations & Small Countries Division Reports ...... 36 16.1 Balkan Volleyball Association – BVA ...... 36 16.2 Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association – EEVZA ...... 37 16.3 Middle European Volleyball Zonal Association – MEVZA ...... 38

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16.4 Northern European Volleyball Zonal Association – NEVZA ...... 39 16.5 Small Countries Division – SCD ...... 40 16.6 Western European Volleyball Zonal Association – WEVZA ...... 41 17. Progress Reports of 2016 and 2017 Organisers ...... 42 17.1 2016 Olympic Games – European Qualification – Women – TUR ...... 42 17.2 2016 Olympic Games – European Qualification – Men – GER ...... 43 17.3 2016 CEV U19 European Championship – Women – SVK/HUN ...... 44 17.4 2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship – Men - BUL ...... 44 17.5 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women ...... 45 17.6 2017 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men – HUN/SVK ...... 46 17.7 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women – AZE/GEO ...... 47 17.8 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Men – POL ...... 47 17.9 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final – SUI ...... 48 17.10 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final – LAT ...... 49 18. List of Attendance – Call of the Delegates ...... 50 19. Confirmation of the Mediation Chamber Members ...... 50 20. Election of the CEV President ...... 50 21. Election of the CEV Board of Administration Members ...... 51 22. Election of the European Representatives to the FIVB Board of Administration ...... 53 23. Acknowledgement of the Appointment of Executive Committee Members & Ratification of Commission Presidents ...... 56 24. Awarding of Honorary Titles ...... 57 25. XXXVII CEV General Assembly ...... 57 26. Miscellaneous ...... 58 27. Closing Speech of the CEV President ...... 58 28. Closing of the XXXVI CEV General Assembly ...... 58

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ANNEXES

FIVB President’s Address ...... Annex 1 CEV Activity Report 2014/2015 & Report on Marketing Affairs ...... Annex 2 CEV Financial Report and External Audit Report ...... Annex 3 EBVC Report ...... Annex 4 ECC Report ...... Annex 5 ELC Report ...... Annex 6 EMC Report ...... Annex 7 ERC Report ...... Annex 8 ESOC Report ...... Annex 9 Statutes and Regulations, Mediation Chamber, CEV Tribunal...... Annex 10 New Media Progress Report ...... Annex 11 CEV Development Activity Report ...... Annex 12 Snow Volleyball ...... Annex 13 BVA Report ...... Annex 14 EEVZA Report ...... Annex 15 MEVZA Report ...... Annex 16 NEVZA Report ...... Annex 17 SCD Report ...... Annex 18 WEVZA Report ...... Annex 19 2016 Olympic Games – European Qualification - Women – TUR ...... Annex 20 2016 Olympic Games – European Qualification - Men – GER ...... Annex 21 2016 CEV U19 ECH Women – SVK/HUN ...... Annex 22 2016 CEV U20 ECH Men – BUL ...... Annex 23 2017 CEV U18 ECH Women – NED ...... Annex 24 2017 CEV U19 ECH Men – HUN/SVK ...... Annex 25 2017 CEV ECH Women – AZE/GEO ...... Annex 26 2017 CEV ECH Men – POL ...... Annex 27 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball ECH Final – SUI ...... Annex 28 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball ECH Final – LAT ...... Annex 29

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Attendance List

Mr Ary S.GRAÇA F° FIVB President Mr André MEYER President Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ Senior Vice-President Mr Theofanis TSIOKRIS FIVB Honorary Vice President - European Mr Philip BERBEN Vice-President and Treasurer President of the Finances Commission Mr Jan HRONEK Vice-President in charge of Administrative Affairs M. Renato ARENA Vice-President President of the Beach Volleyball Commission Mrs Banu CAN-SCHÜRMANN Vice-President Mr Agustin MARTIN SANTOS Vice-President Mrs Sinem MAVILI Vice-President Mr Miroslaw PRZEDPELSKI Vice-President Mr Miguel Angel QUINTANA CEV Honorary member Mr Fabio SASSI CEV Honorary member Mr Andreas STAVROU CEV Honorary member Mr Eric ADLER Member Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING Member Mr Lubor HALANDA Member

Mr Peter KLEINMANN Member Mr Dancho LAZAROV Member Mr Achilleas MAVROMATIS Member Mr Vladimir PATKIN Member Mr Maris PEKALIS Member Mr Aloys FISCHER Member President of the Legal Commission Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE Member President of the Medical Commission Mr Pierre MULHEIMS Member President of the Sports Organizing Commission Ms Riet OOMS Member President of the European Cups Commission Mr Jan REK Member President of the Refereeing Commission

Mr Stav JACOBI Co-opted FIVB Executive Committe Member Ms Daniela PIRRI JOLY FIVB President's office Director Mr Daisuke AKIYAMA Mikasa - General Manager Ms Silvia SORDELLI Infront Italy Srl - Director, TV & Media Rights Mr Christian GÜNTHER The Sportsman - Manager Media Rights Mr Sleven PAUNOVIC The Sportsman - Senior Director Media Sales Mr Friedhelm LANGE Repucom-Senior Consultant Mr Emilio SPIRITO DataProject - CEO Mr Martin KASWURM Chaka2 GmbH - CEO Mr Veit MANNINGER Chaka2 GmbH - Managing Director Mr Patrick MURPHY SCD BOA member Mr Jussi JOKINEN NEVZA General Secretary Mr Timo KENAKKALA NEVZA President Mr Nejc ZEMLJAK MEVZA General Secretary Mr Guido BETTI FIVB TV & Marketing Department Director

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Mr Michel HENNO Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ

ALBANIA Proxy to TUR ANDORRA Proxy to ESP ARMENIA Karen ASMARYAN AUSTRIA Karl HANZL Philipp SEEL AZERBAIJAN Elshan ISMAYILOV Nargiz ISMAYILOVA BELGIUM Willy BRUNINX BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Milutin POPOVIĆ Draženko HARAČIĆ BELARUS Sergej DANILOV BULGARIA Ivan TODOROV CROATIA Zdeslav BARAČ Zlatan KOVAČ CYPRUS Michalis KRASHIAS CZECH REPUBLIC Zdeněk HANĺK Robert URBÁNEK DENMARK Erik JACOBSEN Mikael TROLLE ENGLAND Geoff ALLEN Lisa WAINWRIGHT SPAIN Juan Pedro SÁNCHEZ Luis MUCHAGA ESTONIA Tarvi PÜRN FAROE ISLANDS Magnus TAUSEN Niclas JOENSEN FINLAND Pasi SYDÄNLAMMI Keijo SÄILYNOJA FRANCE Eric TANGUY Annie PEYTAVIN GEORGIA Irakli CHACHUA Giorgi KARTVELISHVILI GERMANY Thomas KROHNE Jörg ZIEGLER GIBRALTAR Emma LABRADOR GREECE Panagiotis SIDERIS Athanasios RERRAS GREENLAND Hans JENSEN HUNGARY Zsolt LUDVIG IRELAND Grainne CULLITON Denise TALLON ICELAND Jason ĺVARSSON Gudmundur Helgi THORSTEINSSON ISRAEL Arie LOCKER Yonatan ALMOG ITALY Carlo MAGRI Pietro Bruno CATTANEO LATVIA Atis SAUSNITIS LIECHTENSTEIN Philippe Schurmann LITHUANIA Marius VASILIAUSKAS LUXEMBOURG Guy ERPELDING Tom KIRTZ MOLDOVA Artur ROMASCAN Vladimir ORLOV Former Yugoslav Zoran KARANOVIC Republic of MACEDONIA MALTA Jesmond SALIBA MONTENEGRO Cvetko PAJKOVIC Ivan BOSKOVIC MONACO Philippe BENGUIGUI NETHERLANDS Peter SPRENGER NORTHERN IRELAND Irena MIHNEVA (Ulster) NORWAY Stein-Gunnar BONDEVIK Kristian GJERSTADBERGET POLAND Pawel PAPKE Konrad PIECHOCKI PORTUGAL Vicente Henrique GOLCALVES Rogério Pedro DE MACEDO DE ARAÚJO OLIVEIRA ROMANIA Gheorge VISAN Constantin ISPAS RUSSIA Stanislav SHEVCHENKO Alexander YAREMENKO

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SCOTLAND Melissa COUTTS Lynne BEATTIE SLOVENIA Metod ROPRET Gregor HUMERCA SAN MARINO Marco GATTI Federico VALENTINI SERBIA Slobodan MILOŠEVIĆ SWITZERLAND Werner AUGSBURGER Nora WILLI SLOVAKIA Tomáš SINGER SWEDEN Saffet ERAYBAR Bengt WICKSELL TURKEY Özkan MUTLUGIL Nihal ISCI UKRAINE Volodymyr TUROVSKYI WALES Yvonne SAKER

Observer Richard CALLICOTT OBE ENGLAND Observer Andria LEZHAVA GEORGIA Observer Arne DIRKS GERMANY Observer Michael EVERS GERMANY Observer Periklis BAKODIMOS GREECE Observer Yaniv NOYMAN ISRAEL Observer Alberto RABITI ITALY Observer Seevar Mar GUDMUNDSSON ICELAND Observer Inara BROKANE LATVIA Observer Chantal SCHOMER LUXEMBOURG Observer Burkhard DISCH LUXEMBOURG Observer Teodemiro Emanuel DE CARVALHO PORTUGAL Observer Nilufer Basak SHIMONSKY TURKEY Observer Abedin IBRAHIMI KOSOVO Observer Blerim GERGURI KOSOVO

Interpreter Giovanna SASSI ITALY Interpreter Wojciech CZAYKA POLAND Interpreter Anastasiia ZAMYSHLIAEVA RUSSIA Interpreter Gabriela BULGARIU ROMANIA

CEV Office Thorsten ENDRES CEV Administrative Director CEV Office Galini BEKOU CEV Administrative Secretary CEV Office Federico FERRARO CEV Press Officer CEV Office Francois WATTHEZ CEV Administrative Secretary CEV Office Ricardo LEITE CEV Administrative Clerk CEV Office Isabelle COLLOT CEV Transfers Coordinator CEV Office Marc VAN DER ELST CEV IT Coordinator CEV Office Stewart DUNNE CEV Development Coordinator

1. Opening Ceremony of the XXXVI General Assembly

1.1 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE BULGARIAN MINISTER OF YOUTH AND SPORT, MR KRASEN KRALEV

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Dear Dr GRACA, Dear Mr MEYER, Dear Mr BORIČIĆ, Dear Delegates, Dear Friends of Volleyball,

Welcome to Bulgaria.

I am proud that our country together with Italy is the host of the European Volleyball Championship and the decisive contest for the occasion of the awards taking place at the Arena Armeec in Sofia.

I believe that all of you will appreciate the efforts which have been made in the organisation of this Championship. Volleyball is the most successful among the Bulgarian team sports – in Bulgaria this is a social phenomenon which unites our whole nation. It is for this reason that particular attention is paid to it by the State Authorities. Our Male National Team has won one silver medal at the Olympic Games, one silver and four bronze honours for the World Championship, and one silver and four bronze medals from the European Championships as well. Our Female Team has won the bronze at the Olympics, European titles and two bronze medals for the Championships all over the continent.

Bulgaria has affection for Volleyball based on the fact that the origin in the Olympic history of this sport is found in Bulgaria. In the end of September 1957 in Sofia, the 53rd session of the International Olympic Committee took place. On this occasion, a demonstration Volleyball tournament was organised at the national stadium of Vasil Levski which was attended by the President of the International Volleyball Confederation, Mr Paul LIBAUD. The atmosphere created by our fans during the match with the attended by 30.000 spectators impressed the Olympic Committee members and Volleyball was adopted into the Olympic Family of Sports. Bulgaria was among the participating countries in the official promotion of Volleyball at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.

Today our country is hosting one more key event in the history of Volleyball: the XXXVI CEV General Assembly. They will elect the new President of the Confederation. I sincerely wish success to both candidates for the position, Andre MEYER and Aleksandar BORIČIĆ, and I am sure that the European Volleyball community will make the best choice in the name of their favourite sport.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that your stay in Bulgaria is pleasant and useful. I wish fruitful work to all delegates of the Assembly and also success to the teams who deserve the right to fight for the Euro Volley 2015 awards. I hope to see many of you once again in 2018 if the International Volleyball Confederation trusts us and Italy with the shared organisation of the World Championship in 2018.

Thank you very much!

Mr Krasen KRALEV

1.2 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BULGARIAN VOLLEYBALL FEDERATION, MR DANCHO LAZAROV

Dear Mr President of the FIVB, Dear Mr President of the CEV, Dear Presidents and Members of the European National Federations, Dear Delegates, dear Guests,

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On behalf of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, and all Bulgarian Volleyball family, it is a great honour and pleasure to welcome you in our beautiful city of Sofia for the CEV General Assembly.

This is an exciting moment for us. Together with Italy we are hosting the European Volleyball Championship Men and I hope that all the ones present here will share with us this important competition. Our capital city will offer you the very best.

Also, I would like to thank the CEV for the trust in the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation to host such a big sports event and at the same time to host the CEV General Assembly. Our federation fully supports and follows the activities of the CEV related to the development and promotion of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in Europe and worldwide. The Bulgarian Volleyball Federation proved that it has the experience to organise sport events of the highest level and is ready for new challenges. Our collaboration with other National Federations of the European Volleyball family gives us even more motivation and confidence for the best possible organisation. I hope we will be able to meet again the strong Volleyball teams here in Bulgaria.

I wish you all a successful day and fruitful work.

Thank you for your attention.

Mr Dancho LAZAROV

1.3 WELCOME SPEECH BY THE CEV PRESIDENT, MR ANDRÉ MEYER

Dear Minister of Youth and Sport, Mr Krasen KRALEV, Dear President of the FIVB, Dr Ary S. GRACA F°, Dear President Dancho LAZAROV, Dear delegates, dear Friends, Ladies and gentlemen,

This year’s General Assembly takes place at a very exciting time for our Volleyball family. Only a couple of weeks ago, The Netherlands and Belgium delivered a terrific show which reached its climax with the final weekend of the highly successful and unforgettable Women’s Euro Volley in Rotterdam. Together with the organisers of the European Volleyball Championship Women we sent out to the outside world a fantastic image of our sport which now stands as a benchmark for dynamism, entertainment, vibe and innovation.

This positive trend has continued also across the four venues that have been playing host to the Final Round of the Men’s European Championship and is expected to reach unprecedented heights this coming weekend here in Sofia where the new kings of the European Volleyball will be crowned.

It has been a busy year for our Volleyball family since we met in October 2014 in Antalya and all together we have stepped up our efforts to further raise the profile and image of our sport and at the same time make sure that they keep on growing at the grassroots as well as in the level.

We have been joining our forces with the FIVB to slowly but surely reshape the image and general perception of our sport and we do share the FIVB strategic and long-term goal of making Volleyball the number one family sport entertainment in the world. Even if we are not always of the same opinion, the CEV and the FIVB will continue to work hand in hand as we embark on this ambitious yet achievable mission.

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I would like to thank the FIVB President, Dr Ary GRACA, for his guidance and support and also for the energy and passion he has shown in pursuing this ultimate goal. You can rest assured that Europe’s Volleyball family shares the same attitude and is fully committed to contributing to a long-term and sustainable growth of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball at all levels.

The recent competitions have confirmed that Volleyball in Europe is moving up to the next level and that fans can now join the total experience which goes well beyond the actions on courts as it combines sport with entertainment, competition with fun and enjoyment show with amusement. This is a goal that we can pursue and achieve only as long as we stay loyal to the real quintessence and the core value of our sport team work.

As Henry Ford said, coming together is just the beginning. Keeping together is progress and working together is success. This is the lesson we can learn from the past few months bearing in mind that team work is essentially the ability to work together toward the common vision. And in spite the discussion and decisions to be taken in the next one and a half days in Sofia, we should always remind ourselves this basic characteristic of our beloved sport.

I thank our Bulgarian friends of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation for hosting us in this wonderful setting and for the efforts in the organisation of our General Assembly and of the Men’s Euro Volley together with Italy. I wish you all a very enjoyable stay here in Sofia hoping you will all contribute to a successful meeting and will help us continue this success story also for years to come.

Thank you very much.

Mr André MEYER CEV President

2. Installing of the XXXVI General Assembly's Office

2.1 RECORD OF ATTENDANCE

Upon completion of the nominative call against the record of attendance, 53 federations are found present and 2 federations are validly represented, making a total of 55.

Therefore, Mr Aloys FISCHER, the President of the Legal Commission, informs everyone that the simple majority of the National Federations’ votes for the elections is 28, and two-third majority is 37.

2.2 CONFIRMATION OF THE APPOINTMENT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION MEMBERS

2.3 REPORT OF THE CREDENTIALS & CHECKING COMMISSION

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3. Official Opening of the XXXVI General Assembly

Based on the report of the Credential Checking Commission, Mr MEYER confirms that the XXXVI General Assembly is officially open.

4. Approval of the Agenda

In the absence of any objection or comment, the agenda of the XXXVI General Assembly is approved.

5. Approval of the Minutes of the XXXV General Assembly held in Antalya (TUR)

In the absence of any written or oral remark, the minutes of the XXXV General Assembly held in Antalya (TUR) on 24 – 25 October 2014 are unanimously approved and adopted.

6. FIVB President’s Address

Before starting his presentation, the FIVB President Dr Ary S. GRACA F° expresses his gratitude for the opportunity to address his colleagues at the CEV General Assembly.

He then shares his experience, his visions and his plans with regard to the development of Volleyball as the biggest competitive sport in the world. Since he took over the presidency of the FIVB in 2012, he has revolutionised the way of working within the FIVB. He stresses the importance of credibility, transparency, communication and good governance in dealing with the National Federations, sponsors, TV and partners, as well as integration with and collaboration between the various Confederations.

He mentions the positive developments achieved through the introduction of the Continental Cup with the number of countries involved in the Olympic Qualification process increasing from 31 in 2008 to 143 in 2012, with 176 presently registered for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Dr Ary S. GRACA F° is also pleased with the e-learning which has taken the training of Volleyball professional to another level, giving more people opportunities to participate and gain the necessary knowledge and skills to keep up to date with the new developments. He also talks about the development of an innovative LED net and the challenge system to improve the way matches are decided and resolved. Efforts should be made to promote Beach Volleyball and also to turn Volleyball into the family sport entertainment where everyone can find something of interest.

Finally, Dr Ary S. GRACA F° presents the 9 goals of the FIVB strategic plan approved by the FIVB Board of Administration:

1. To move Volleyball from Group 2 to Group 1 in the IOC rankings by 2020 2. To reach 2 million users on the FIVB Digital Platform by 2016

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3. To increase the cumulative TV audience by 20% in 2016 and by 100% in 2020 4. To sign 4 new global sponsors by 2020 with a goal of 10 million per year 5. To grow the average FIVB annual income from 31 million to 66 million by 2020 6. To have a competitive, effective and sustainable bidding process by 2018 for all FIVB main events 7. To make a TV or Internet feed for FIVB key events available to all the 221 National Federations by 2016 8. To increase the number of licenced/amateur players by 2018 9. To become the number 1 sport that serves the needs of humanitarian organisations in their programmes

Eventually, a video recapturing the presentation is displayed after which Dr Ary S. GRACA F°, expressing his faith and confidence in the CEV and the National Federations of Europe, concludes his address by reminding everyone that the success of Volleyball depends on the work of all the National Volleyball Federations of the world.

7. CEV Activity Report 2014/2015 & Report on Marketing Affairs

Mr MEYER recounts some of the most important facts and figures of the past year, starting with the Annual Reviews of the Volleyball and Beach Volleyball competitions. The 2015 European Championship Men taking place in Italy and Bulgaria, which is to close in the coming days, has been a great success. The 2015 European Championship Women in The Netherlands and Belgium has just recently closed with Russia claiming the gold medal. The sell-out crowd of 11 thousand fans in attendance and the terrific ambience helped to raise the profile of Volleyball to great heights and proved to be a tremendous experience for everyone involved.

He also mentions he is particularly pleased with the organisation and sportive level on display in the Final Rounds of the Small Countries Division Championships. The Men’s Finals were held in Luxembourg with the Home Team seizing the title, and the Women’s Finals in Liechtenstein where Cyprus claimed victory. Both of the events proved to demonstrate that the European Volleyball Family offers plenty of opportunities at all levels.

The Final Rounds of Women U18 and Men U19 European Championships held in Turkey and Bulgaria earlier in the year gave an opportunity to the stars in the making to showcase their skills and test their abilities with Poland sweeping all of the titles of the U19 age category, while Russia claimed the medals in the U18 Championship.

The 2015 European League Men was a major success especially for the National Team of Slovenia which seized the gold and the right to compete in the next edition of the FIVB World League. The 2015 European League Women tournament was also successful with the Hungarian team claiming the first historic victory for their country in 28 years. The Women’s 2015 European League marked also the debut for Georgia which is preparing to co-host the 2017 Euro Volley together with Azerbaijan.

As regards the European Volleyball Teams on the global stage, France won the World League Round at the Finals held in Rio de Janeiro which also served as a test event for next year’s Olympics. At the World Cup in Japan, Italy finished as runners-up of the competition to secure their qualification for next year’s Olympics. Russia’s and Serbia’s Women claimed two silver medals at the World Grand

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Prix Finals and the World Cup, respectively. The National Team of Serbia is Europe’s first team to claim the spot for the event of Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

At the three age groups of U19, U21 and U23 World Championships held this year, Russia claimed the gold medal in the U21 and U23 events held in Mexico and Dubai, while Poland claimed the U19 title at the global event held in Argentina. Italy’s Women topped the podium of the U18 World Championship in Peru and won bronze in the U20 division played in Puerto Rico, while Turkey’s team were runners-up in the U23 event held in .

Mr MEYER then moves on to the European clubs competitions starting with the elite CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League and he draws everyone’s attention to the chart presenting the numbers recapping the 2015 . He points out the prize money of 1.8 million euro paid as a reward to the clubs for their efforts in delivering the world’s most spectacular and exciting Club Volleyball competition.

The two Final Four tournaments held in Berlin and Szczecin for Men and Women respectively ended with Russia’s Zenit KAZAN and Turkey’s Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL claiming their third and first titles, respectively. In the 2015 edition of the CEV Volleyball Cup, Russia cemented their status of Volleyball force as Dinamo MOSCOW and Dinamo KRASNODAR claimed their victories. NOVI SAD became Serbia’s first club to win a European Cup trophy while Turkey’s BURSA BBSK consolidated their country’s status as a major force in Women’s Volleyball.

Mr MEYER comments also on the success of the European Teams on the global stage with a clean sweep of the podium at the Women’s Club World Championship in Zurich where Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL added yet another honour to the Champions League crown they had seized only a few weeks earlier. Mr MEYER is also confident that Russia’s Zenit KAZAN representing Europe later in the month at the men’s competition in Brazil will perform to their best standards.

Mr MEYER briefly reports on the achievements of Beach Volleyball, referring first of all to the CEV Beach Volleyball Championship matches played in Klagenfurt, Austria, where despite the unfavourable weather conditions the event attracted as many as 87,000 fans, and then also to the games played in Latvia, Switzerland and Italy. Next to Vaduz, where Beach Volleyball competitions have already been organised in the past, Belarus, Romania and the Former Y.R. of Macedonia played host to the inaugural events of Beach Volleyball aimed to promote the development of this sport in these countries for the years to come. The three age-group categories of the 2015 Beach Volleyball Championships were organised in Portugal, Cyprus and Latvia and confirmed the emerging of new budding stars of Beach Volleyball.

The Netherlands hosted the Beach Volleyball Championships this year, which proved to be an exciting event visited by King Willem-Alexander himself, with The Netherlands seizing the silver medal in the Women’s competition while Germany ended in the fourth place in the Men’s event. The 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is approaching its climax with the Finals coming up next year and whose eventual winners will be competing at Rio 2016. Following completion of Round 3 and 4, we now know the 16 teams per gender that will be competing at the finals whose organiser is due to be announced soon.

Mr MEYER proudly announces that CEV Zonal Associations have hosted as many as 83 events in the past year, which is a very positive development, along with the upcoming introduction of the new age-group Championships for U16 Women and U17 Men, and serves to further promote the sport.

The Baku held in Azerbaijan constituted a highlight of the year 2015 and received most positive reviews from sports officials, fans and media alike. Germany’s Men and Turkey’s Women claimed the respective titles as European Games Champions.

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The Bi-annual European Youth Olympic Festival was held in Georgia’s this year and saw Poland claiming the title for Men and Turkey for Women. Georgia is also preparing to host the 2017 Final Round of the Women’s EuroVolley. The 2015 Games of the Small States of Europe were played in Iceland with the Home Team claiming the gold medal of the Women’s Beach Volleyball competitions.

Mr MEYER then recounts the annual European Volleyball Gala held in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna with the Drawing of Lots for the 2016 edition of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. Furthermore, he announces the launching of the Snow Volleyball Tour which will be organised under the authority of the CEV for the first time this coming winter.

Afterwards, Mr MEYER mentions the possible changes to the current format of the European Cups and European Championships and refers to the President of the FIVB with a plea to solve the issues with the international Volleyball calendar. He stresses the need for joining the efforts of all Confederations to reduce the activities for our top players, open the strict division between the National Teams’ and Club Teams’ activities and to establish a reliable calendar valid for all five Confederations in order to better promote Volleyball over the whole year. He then also mentions the introduction of the new design of the trophies for the winners of CEV Volleyball and Beach Volleyball European Championships meant to symbolise the focus on team work and collective effort.

As regards the social platforms and their contribution in the promotion of Volleyball, Mr MEYER remarks on the mobile app launched earlier in the year and the HD TV graphics as well as the TV rights of the CEV competitions. He notes the technological tools that help improve the general perception and understanding of Volleyball and support the work and performance of referees. The e- learning platform has been extended to all clubs participating in the European Cups as well as to Volleyball and Beach Volleyball referees, and the CEV Volleyball Competition Regulations are to enter into force soon.

After that Mr MEYER briefly mentions how impressed he is with the work done by three of the five FIVB/CEV Development Centres currently operating in Europe. He states that they are working really hard to become real “hubs” of the further development of Volleyball across Europe. The Development Seminar organised a few weeks back allowed the CEV to identify key areas for improvement as well as actions to increase the participation of the Small Countries Division in all CEV’s activities and competitions.

The Management Seminar organised during the week in Sofia has served as yet another opportunity for the stakeholders to exchange experiences and study best practices in order to foster the growth of Volleyball. Mr MEYER thanks all the CEV partners in this respect for their trust and investment, specifically Mikasa, DenizBank and Smart, the new partner French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as Infront Sports & Media and the Marketing Advisor from Serbia.

Following the proposals of the Marketing Advisor regarding the Corporate Social Responsibility action, the CEV has once again launched the Green Way campaign featuring the unique Mikasa MVA200CEV volleyball and the green shirts worn by the libero players of the teams competing in the elite CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. Mr MEYER also refers to the CEV Fair Play – Volleyball Way campaign which serves to promote the core, distinctive values of Volleyball.

Mr MEYER informs everybody of the new sections and functionalities of the CEV website which keeps on growing to cater to the needs of those searching for information about CEV competitions and events. The next edition of the CEV Yearbook is expected to be completed and dispatched before the Christmas holidays and the CEV History collection has been sent out to all the Federations as reference of the development and organisation of Volleyball throughout the years.

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Mr MEYER also confirms that the CEV has entered into official partnership with the EU Office of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in Brussels, adding to the other EU strategic partnerships, including the European Sports Press Union, the Special Olympics and the European Team Sports Association. He then mentions the joint projects of the ETS, the Executive Master in European Sports Governance (MESGO), which is addressed and open to sports leaders to further study and expand their network with other professionals and invites the National Federations to put forward their potential candidates for the project to the CEV.

Finally, Mr MEYER comments on the collaboration of the CEV with the FIVB and the four other Continental Confederations. He emphasises the common goals they all share, despite their differences, and expresses his gratitude for the support of the FIVB and assures the FIVB President that Europe is aware of its responsibility and is ready to be the forerunner on the global stage of Volleyball for years to come.

Mr MEYER also informs everybody that the CEV Head Office has increased in manpower and has been partially restructured to ensure smoother running of all operations with a clearer division of tasks and a more efficient follow-up and is also liaising with a professional company in Luxembourg to safeguard copyrights on the CEV logo and the most important trademarks.

To conclude, Mr MEYER remarks on the end of his mandate term and takes the opportunity to thank everyone for their support, dedication and commitment, particularly to the Senior Vice-President, Treasurer, colleagues from the Executive Committee, the Board of Administration, the Commissions and Working Group Members, Zonal Associations, Development Centres, National Federations, clubs, partners, auditors and the CEV Head Office in Luxembourg.

Mr MEYER calls upon Mr Friedhelm LANGE, the Repucom-Senior Consultant, to say a few words about the status quo and the development of Volleyball in Europe.

Repucom is an independent service provider, working for different stakeholders in sports, dedicated to the assessment of data from various sources based on market research around the world. They assess different media channels, television, print, online media, and they also collect data available on the market with the goal of providing their clients with the best information available and to find the interesting points that help to develop the product in question.

Mr LANGE affirms sport as one of the most unifying platforms in the world with huge potential in the social, educational and commercial dimensions. He refers to the key facts and indicators from Repucom’s research, focusing on three major areas:

- The potential and interest in Volleyball - The presence of Volleyball on TV - The digitisation of Volleyball.

Regarding the interest in Volleyball, from the 11 key European countries which form the core part of Repucom’s fundamental study, every third is found to be essentially interested or very interested in Volleyball (e.g. Turkey, Italy and Poland). There are also other countries outside of the scope of Repucom’s study, e.g. Serbia and Bulgaria, where the relevance of Volleyball is widely recognised, and this indicates enormous potential.

Repucom’s study over the last five years has also revealed that in the top three Volleyball markets, the interest has seen tremendous growth, e.g. from a bit more than 30% to 60% in Italy, with a similar trend observed also in Turkey and Poland. Mr LANGE further asserts that the markets where the interest for Volleyball is generally weaker, the research has also revealed clear positive trends in the past year. Mr LANGE goes on to discuss the interest in Beach Volleyball, where Repucom’s research has also found that it is generally growing in popularity with the 92 million people covered by the study

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expressing interest in the sport. The three top markets for Beach Volleyball are also Turkey, Italy and Poland and the average interest amounts to 35%.

When compared with the other sports, interest in Volleyball constitutes 31% of the general interest in sports following , cycling, (41%) and football (58%). Mr LANGE talks about how this interest drives engagement, which relates to the numbers of registered players, and reveals that Russia and Germany have the highest engagement levels in Volleyball whereas Portugal tops in Beach Volleyball. As regards the level of interest between the genders, both men and women express nearly equal interest in Volleyball, in contrast to other sports which are mostly dominated by men. Furthermore, this equal interest of both men and women in Volleyball projects itself also on the broadcast time with the coverage being almost the same for women’s competitions as for men’s. The sponsors seem to have a particular interest in the female fans and athletes, therefore the wide engagement of women in the sport is not just a great asset for now but also has great potential for the future of Volleyball.

In Repucom’s research, people are also asked about their favourite sport on TV and the preference for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball has been rising over the last 5 years, from 6.1% in 2011 to 10.3% in 2015, which indicates a clear positive trend with potential for growth in the future. This rising trend is also reflected in the increasing broadcast time of Volleyball, particularly in the Final Rounds.

Mr LANGE goes on to talk about sponsorship and states that Repucom’s research clearly indicates a growing trend towards the so-called “mega deals” on the one hand, and the development of regionalised sponsorships on the other (i.e. sponsorships dedicated to a certain country or a certain market). All of this points towards a strong competition to generate money through sponsorship in the future. The study shows that the CEV provides a valuable sponsorship platform for its partners also in comparison with other sports, both in the aspect of how much is spent and how the investment relates to the numbers of audiences (CPT 50% above average).

As regards digitalisation, the study shows that the Internet is the most frequently used medium (ahead of TV since 2014) to follow Volleyball events and other sports in general. Hence, the Internet, i.e. newspaper websites, official websites of the clubs, leagues and federations as well as social networks, should be given more attention, as Mr LANGE points out, especially since there is a growing tendency to multiscreen, i.e. to use various digital media at the same time to follow events.

Repucom’s study has also looked into the Volleyball and Beach Volleyball activities in the social media and has revealed that Volleyball has a higher percentage of posts around versatile Volleyball and try-outs rather than professional Volleyball and Beach Volleyball competitions. He points out that it is the events that foster conversations on social media and that this has huge potential because thanks to the right content people are driven into platforms, then into the events and finally even into active engagement in the sport.

Finally, Mr LANGE refers to the goals of the General Assembly 2014 and gives an overview of what has been achieved. From the three goals set last year: the first goal of promotional content and activities has the status of achievement of almost 60%; the second goal of expanded awareness and brand identity has the status of 43%; and the third goal of reaching out to the audiences in a more proactive way has the status of 50%.

To conclude, Mr LANGE recounts the main points of his presentation:  The interest in Volleyball has been growing strongly in the last 5 years  The TV preference for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball is increasing in Europe  The CEV sponsorships provide reasonable value for money ratio with companies willing to pay more for their partnership than in other sport competitions  There is a high percentage of social media conversations around versatile Volleyball  The CEV is on track for reaching the digital objectives

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 There is potential for improving brand identity.

Mr MEYER thanks Mr LANGE for his valuable and interesting presentation and opens the floor for questions. As there are no questions, Mr MEYER announces a coffee break.

The complete presentation of the CEV Activity Report 2014/2015 & Report on Marketing Affairs can be found annexed to these minutes.

8. Financial Report

8.1 ACCOUNTS 2014

Mr BERBEN starts his presentation by explaining how the accounts and the budget are prepared for the CEV. He refers to the decision of the CEV Board of Administration to work in cooperation with the Members of the Financial Commission and also to have the Internal Auditors meet regularly not just to give financial advice but also to prepare a monthly overview of the CEV accounts. The Financial Commission receive all items concerning accounts and send it back for questions and comments, and Mr BERBEN remarks that for 2014 accounts there was only one question which was answered swiftly.

Mr BERBEN comments on the importance of transparency in any association in order to maintain a strong financial position and to ensure normal working of all concerned organs. He then stresses the need for extensive audit and control systems and for a more comprehensive financial support to National Federations, Clubs, Organisers and other institutional bodies, as well as continued investment in Volleyball and Beach Volleyball competitions and further funding of the development fund projects.

Looking at the expenditures, Mr BERBEN provides a breakdown of the expenses and investments, including the increased spending paid as prize money and financial support paid to the National Federations and CEV organs. In terms of revenues, he refers to the affiliation fees and explains that they are different from the inscription fee and relate to the fact that the CEV is a non-profit organisation based on Luxembourgish Law and Legislation; there is an affiliation fee to be paid by every member to be recognised as a real member of the association. Mr BERBEN also mentions the increase in administration income because of transfer fees and the decrease in allocation of funds from the FIVB for the Continental Cup.

8.2 INTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2014

Dear President Mr MEYER, Dear Board of Administration Members, Dear National Delegates, Dear Friends,

We, the undersigned, Olavi ALA-NISSILA and Michel HENNO, have audited on 31 March - 1 April 2015 the accounts of the CEV over the year 2014.

We sincerely thank Mr André Meyer, CEV President, Mr Philip BERBEN, CEV Vice-President and Treasurer, and particularly Mrs Sylvie COLLIGNON, in charge of the bookkeeping, for their assistance and explanations during our work.

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The CEV accounts are subject to an external audit by Grant Thornton Lux Audit S.A., and we discussed with Mr Marco Claude about his work on finalising the bookkeeping 2014.

We controlled the bank statements over the year and also made the comparison between the adopted budget and the final results.

The bookkeeping is carried out according to the rules and this is executed with the required precision and clarity.

We would like to make some remarks:

 The operating profit amounts to 833.000,- EUR. This amount is much less than the preceding years and we have checked the different items of this result.

 Comparing those results with those of the year 2012, we have to stress the large increase in the revenues for sponsorships and marketing related to the Champions League, of more than 1.000.000,- EUR. On the same side of the balance sheet, we saw better revenues for all competitions amounting to 445.000,- EUR, and less money from transfers, the FIVB and from the interest. Less money of the total amount of 260.000,- EUR.

 As regards expenditure, compared with 2012, there is a huge increase in competition cost including prize money: 1.850.000,- EUR. We saw higher costs of office staff and premises: 390.000,- EUR; more activity needs more people and more working cost.

 We spend more money on new projects, like the support of Development Centres, e-learning, and some extraordinary support for some National Federations who were victims of natural calamities.  Following the rules, the CEV office, i.e. the part of the building we own, are to be amortised each year for an amount of 285.000,- EUR. The sole amortisation of the office is 260.000,- EUR. It is 2,5% yearly during 40 years, following the Law of Luxembourg.

 For the second year in a row, the fines are not decreasing and amounted to 85.000,- EUR in 2014. We can only repeat our warning to the sanctioned clubs or federations: pay attention when you take part in some competitions, better follow the requirements for venues or documents and, especially to the National Federations, please help your clubs with their organisation to avoid problems.

 The debt of the World events and the Beach Volleyball Round of 109.000,- EUR has depreciated completely. It was decided in 2013 and it is booked in 2014. We want to come back to a remark in our previous report. Some countries made an arrangement with the CEV in order to clear their situation. This kind of transaction needs to be made with a written agreement between both parties. So far we checked and it is already done.

 The use of the euro for the handling of the international transfers has given less work for the CEV and we didn’t have any complaints from the Federations. Nevertheless, we suggest that the amounts calculated in Euro based on the original amount in Swiss Franc from the beginning of 2014 should be adapted to the exchange rates at the moment of the opening of the period of transfers. We suggest to take the rates of exchange from the beginning of the transfer period in June.

 Finally, we received all documents we asked for: CEV wants to be a model of transparency, openness and clearness in its transactions, and we thank the responsible bodies of the Confederation.

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Considering the above remarks, we find that the Confederation is working correctly, according to the legal and legislative requirements, and we propose to the General Assembly to approve the accounts and to unburden the persons in charge.

Michel HENNO, Internal Auditor Olavi ALA-NISSILA, Internal Auditor

In the absence of any other questions or remarks, the 2014 CEV accounts are approved by the General Assembly.

8.3 EXTERNAL AUDITORS’ REPORT – ACCOUNTS 2014

As laid down in the CEV Statutes and Luxembourg's legislation, the 2014 CEV accounts were also subject to an external audit by the company Grant Thornton Lux Audit SA.

The written external audit report can be found annexed to these minutes.

8.4 CONFIRMATION OF THE INTERNAL AUDITORS

Mr MEYER asks the General Assembly to confirm the internal auditors for the next working period as proposed by the CEV Board of Administration:

 Mr Michel HENNO (BEL)  Mr Olavi ALA-NISSILÄ (FIN)  Mr MEYER confirms that both auditors are doing an excellent job of controlling the CEV accounts, advising the CEV as needed.

In the absence of any comments or other proposals, Mr MEYER confirms Mr HENNO and Mr ALA-NISSILÄ as CEV Internal Auditors for the next working period.

8.5 BUDGET 2016

Mr BERBEN makes the following specific remarks concerning the budget for 2016:

 Less money predicted for the European Championships as in 2016 there will be no Senior European Championships  There will be extra support for categories U16 and U17  No FIVB allocation yet for the World Championship Qualification  Money for sponsorship and marketing allocated based on the current contract situation  Subletting of the CEV premises in Luxembourg with a contract of 5 years.

Based on this information, and considering the fact that the budget was adopted by the CEV Board of Administration during its meeting in May 2015 in Moscow, Mr BERBEN asks the General Assembly for approval.

The complete presentation of the Financial Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

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The floor is open for questions.

Mr Stein-Gunnar BONDEVIK (NOR) Mr BONDEVIK asks whether the allocation for categories U16 and U17 include financial support to the Zonal Associations for organising the Qualification tournament.

Mr MEYER explains that the Board of Administration consider this as a development project and the amount of money planned for this in the budget is to support the organisers and cover the travel expenses of the participating teams and as such includes also financial support for the organisation of the Qualification process.

In the absence of any further questions or comments, the financial report of the 2014 accounts, the internal audit report, the external audit report and the 2016 budget are unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

9. Commission Reports

9.1 BEACH VOLLEYBALL COMMISSION (MR RENATO ARENA)

Mr ARENA begins the report of the CEV Beach Volleyball Commission noting the following developments:  Beach Volleyball has increased its activity by 218% in the last four years  The number of tournaments has increased from 16 to 51 per year  As many as 25 different National Federations were involved in the organisation of events for season 2015  There has been an increase in prize money and the revenue which reached 10% of the total budget  The Beach Volleyball TV Production has increased reaching 120h this year and the Internet LIVE Streaming has reached 650h  After the launch of the CEV social media in 2014, the activity of Beach Volleyball on Facebook has reached 19%, YouTube 37% and Twitter 11%.

The CEV Beach Volleyball summer season comprised three Masters in Jumala, Biel and Milano, and the European Championship Final in Klagenfurt. There were two seminars organised: a Coaching Seminar in Azerbaijan and a Technical Supervisor seminar in Lorca, the latter of which focused on the use of the new technology and the introduction of the E-Scoresheet in Beach Volleyball.

Following the decision of the FIVB to split the organisation of the World Championship into every two years, the CEV Board of Administration has decided to continue organising the under-age category events every year in order to facilitate the preparation for the World Championship and also to foster the participation of young players.

The Olympic Games qualification process was played in the 3rd and 4th Rounds of the Continental Cup, with seven different countries organising the 3rd Round and three different countries organising the 4th Round. The Final Round for the Qualification to the Olympic Games will be played next year. In addition to these events, four satellite events have been organised in Europe in 2015 and there has been notably more activity in the Zonal Associations. Mr ARENA expresses his appreciation for the fact that all the Zonal Associations participated in the organisation of these events and that as many as 44 National Federations are now involved in Beach Volleyball.

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Future major events planned for 2016 include the European Championship Final in Biel/Bienne and the Continental Cup Final in Stavanger. The Continental Youth Development project which was initiated in 2013 will be finalised in 2016, and it will allow the U17 category not only to start playing but also to qualify for the World Championship. Thanks to the collaboration between the FIVB and the CEV, the Beach Volleyball Commission will soon be able to start also with a new project for categories I and II.

To conclude, Mr ARENA thanks the National Federations and the CEV President as well as all Beach Volleyball fans.

The complete presentation of the Beach Volleyball Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

9.2 CUPS COMMISSION (MS RIET OOMS)

Ms OOMS, the President of the CEV Cups Commission, informs the General Assembly that her presentation will focus on the following four items:

 European Cups Commission activity reports  European Cups 2015 season highlights  European Cups Commission updates and plans  European Cups - future vision.

As regards the activity reports, Ms OOMS provides a quick recap of the 2016 European Cups competitions referring to the results of the CEV Challenge Cup and the CEV Volleyball Cup for both Men and Women as well as the CEV DenizBank Champions League.

For 2015 season highlights, she mentions the Drawing of Lots in Vienna and Luxemburg as well as the 2015 Champions League. She notes that the European Cups Responsible seminar in Vienna was a great success and contributed to the Working Group of the Future of the European Cups, as it provided opportunities to meet with various specialists and to improve the work on more extensive monitoring with the supervisors, as well as to improve the website and the database.

Ms OOMS then moves on to discuss the European Cups Commission updates and plans. There have been quite a lot of changes, starting with the new rules on licences. Before, there used to be supplementary licences, for which clubs were able to ask at a later phase, and which were very expensive. They no longer exist as there are only the regular licences and they all have the same price. Also, player licences can now be revoked so a player can have the right to play in a new team.

There have been some adaptations made to the rules of the game, and the free zone as well as the five-ball system are now used in all Cups competitions. Ms OOMS notes that the European Cups Commission has been focusing more on the lighting provisions in the halls and that Data Volley statistics were updated after each set. There have also been some new provisions on the social media concerning the European Cups events.

Ms OOMS then goes on to enumerate the special updates for the Champions League for this year. The Video Challenge System is an obligation already in the playoffs, and the bench application as well as the referee tablets are also used during the whole competition. Ms OOMS further announces that the Champions League anthem has been launched and will now be played before every match.

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As for the Final Four, there is a bidding taking place in December 2015 and all the clubs that will be chosen to participate will be informed accordingly during the Drawing of Lots in January 2016. The wireless head set system will be used for the CEV Cup and the Challenge Cup as from the Quarter Finals.

There are plans to have more coverage in the press starting with the first round of the CEV Cup as the clubs are eager to send information, which gives them more possibility to have their presence on the CEV website. Ms OOMS notes that players’ names are now mandatory on all team uniforms and photos are also required. As regards the European Cups Responsibles seminar which was organised in 2015 in Hungary, Ms OOMS remarks that a lot of National Federations were eager to participate and that the CEV office has received a lot of positive feedback.

Finally, Ms OOMS presents the General Assembly with an overview of the proposals put forward by the Working Group for the Future of the European Cups. The proposals include the vision of the future European Cups and objectives:

1. Vision:  The CEV Champions League must be the strongest Cup of the three competitions and the CEV Cup should be the runner-up.  The CEV Challenge Cup should be open to all clubs that want to play on the European level including those that don’t have the means or the facilities to play in the higher ranking competitions. 2. Objectives:  All the matches should be more competitive, i.e. the competing teams should play on a more or less the same level of performance.  The environment and the level of the teams should be standardised from the lowest Cup to the highest.  The CEV Cup competitions should offer a financially viable opportunity for the teams to play in the competitions to which they belong  More clubs taking part in the Cups competitions will provide the CEV with bigger and better projects which will hopefully bring more followers and create new European- wide markets.

The complete presentation of the Cups Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

The floor is open for questions.

Mr Stein-Gunnar BONDEVIK (NOR) Mr BONDEVIK would like to know why there has been an increase in the European Cups Prize Money despite the budget having been set for a lower amount.

Mr BERBEN explains that the Prize Money in the European Cups is set for the CEV Cup and the Challenge Cup, but for the Champions League it can vary depending on the contracts signed for the Champions League. This was the situation in 2014 when the CEV Executive Committee decided to increase the Prize Money for that year from 1.4 million euro to 1.827 million euro because of the surplus in the accounts. In 2015, the CEV decided to use the same figures as in 2014 hoping that there might be another surplus.

Mr Stein-Gunnar BONDEVIK (NOR) Mr BONDEVIK asks if the increase in Prize Money due to a surplus in the internal accounts follows some set principles as to how much to increase and who it is allocated to, and he would also like to know if the information about how that Prize Money surplus is distributed is

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available to the National Federations.

Mr BERBEN explains that there are no set principles and the system of paying more is decided when needed inside the CEV Executive Committee with the approval of the CEV Board of Administration.

Mr Peter KLEINMANN Mr KLEINMANN inquires as to why it has been decided to reduce the number of teams participating in the Champions League. In order to make Volleyball more popular, the CEV should do the reverse.

Mr MEYER responds explaining that the CEV are in fact not reducing the number of participating teams but rather enlarging in the whole Cups system, with better conditions for the lower Cup teams.

9.3 FINANCIAL COMMISSION (MR PHILIP BERBEN)

Already discussed under point 8 of the agenda.

9.4 LEGAL COMMISSION (MR ALOYS FISCHER)

Mr FISCHER notes that the CEV European Legal Commission has met twice in 2015, in March and in July. These meetings were required due to some inconsistencies in the different regulations which were the result of changes being made to the statutes and regulations without considering in detail other existing regulations.

The main work of the ELC during their meeting in March consisted in proposing amendments to the statutes in order to eliminate discrepancies. These proposals have been accepted by the Board of Administration and will be subsequently presented to the General Assembly for approval. They do not change the content of the statutes and concern the following:

 Changes in article 2.1 of the General Regulations to clarify the duties of the Board of Administration

 Changes of the former chapter 4, now chapter 3, to define more precisely the duties of the Commission Presidents – the Board asked to include here also the Presidents of the Working Groups (this was further discussed during the ELC meeting in July)

 Adaptation of the Code of Discipline in some minor points and a proposal to change the title of this regulation to Disciplinary Regulations.

The second ELC meeting in 2015 took place in July and the three main points discussed were the following:

 The new Competition Regulations

The CEV has been trying to unify the various competition regulations for many years, and finally such a document has been prepared. Mr FISCHER takes this opportunity to thank Mr Xavier MANSAT, the CEV Legal Coordinator who drafted this document, for the excellent work he has done. The first draft was initially discussed with the different competent

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Commissions which resulted in a second draft, which was then extensively discussed within the ELC. Some important changes were proposed and they were then again discussed and the final version has been reviewed and approved by the CEV Board of Administration.

 Jurisdiction inside the CEV – European Volleyball Tribunal

The CEV Tribunal was abolished years ago, following the decision of the FIVB, but the CEV has now asked to have jurisdiction on a European level to help the National Federations of Europe deal with disputes more efficiently without having to appeal to the FIVB Tribunal. In the light of this, the ELC has proposed to have a three-fold composition of this jurisdiction: mediation, arbitration and disciplinary decisions.

 Changes in the General Regulations

According to the decision taken by the Board of Administration in May 2015, the ELC have worked on chapter 3 of the General Regulations and have proposed changes which were subsequently accepted by the Board.

Mr FISCHER then refers to the European Legal Commission activities stating that the duty of the Commission is, as always, to assist and provide legal advice and support to the various organs of the CEV as needed. The ELC therefore does not work continuously on a specific item but is mandated as needed.

To conclude, Mr FISCHER notes that the future activities of the ELC depend on the Board of Administration but that one important point on the agenda is the new CEV Tribunal. He mentions that the foundations for this are there and now the ELC will follow the corresponding decisions of the CEV Board of Administration as well as the FIVB principles in this field.

The floor is open for questions.

The complete presentation of the Legal Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

9.5 MEDICAL COMMISSION (MR MANFRED HOLZGRAEFE)

Mr HOLZGRAEFE reports on the fight against doping and mentions that the special new anti-doping programme has been in place for all the CEV competitions in 2015. All the test results so far this year have been negative.

He then briefly mentions the new developments in the methodology of the anti-doping referring to the new way of identifying and documenting the players. He remarks on the new technology used, namely the paperless M1 Form which is the form used to notify the anti-doping controls, and the new anti-doping education programme which was launched in September 2015 and has so far proven very successful. Mr HOLZGRAEFE comments on the change of testing and states that athletes now have to document on the Internet and in the ADAMS system where they are within a one-hour time-slot.

The European Medical Commission also focuses on educating the young players of Volleyball about anti-doping and has asked the National Federations to install an education programme, which has so far been achieved in a number of countries.

Mr HOLZGRAEFE discloses some medical details concerning Volleyball and states that according to the Injury Surveillance Programme, the number of injuries in Volleyball is quite low amounting to 3,8h per 1.000h playing Volleyball and the most common injuries concern the ankle, knee, finger and the

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lower back. This survey includes the CEV and FIVB Volleyball competitions and can be found in the October 2015 edition of the British Medical Journal.

As regards the Referees Health Management Programme, all the referees have passed despite some warnings concerning blood pressure and obesity. Mr HOLZGRAEFE notes that the EMC, supported by the CEV, have started a testing programme via computer to evaluate the psychological abilities (awareness, attention, etc.) of the referees.

To conclude, Mr HOLGRAEFE informs everyone that recent studies have demonstrated that playing Volleyball, along with other sports which require quick decision-making, high degree of visual attention and flexibility (such as basketball, fencing, ), stimulates the brain and reduces the aging process.

The complete presentation of the Medical Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

9.6 REFEREEING COMMISSION (MR JAN REK)

Mr REK presents a review of the activities of the CEV European Refereeing Commission. He points out the increasing figures and notes that from the total of 475 CEV referees recruited in 2015, there are 366 for Volleyball and 109 for Beach Volleyball. He is pleased with the fact that the CEV competitions offer referees a good platform to practice their skills with more than one thousand matches played in the last competition period.

He also states that the female activity in refereeing is a very important challenge for the ERC, even though the participation has been growing steadily since 2007 and the National Federations have been working hard on preparing a new generation of female referees.

Mr REK then moves on to talk about the role of the CEV refereeing in the FIVB competitions. There are 1333 referees registered in total from the five Confederations and Europe covers 35.3%. Furthermore, from the 151 international referees participating in the FIVB competitions, European Referees have officiated 37.7% of the FIVB matches.

Another important part of the work of the ERC is the education of referees and Mr REK affirms that they are working in close collaboration with National Federations and have organised the following seminars in 2015:

 Beach Volleyball Referee Delegate seminar  National Referee Commission Presidents seminar  National Federation Referee Training Responsible seminar.

Mr REK remarks that the e-learning in refereeing has been a stable element of the education of referees in the last two years, focused on two activities:

 Pre-competition season preparation – all the referees in Europe are obliged to participate  Pre-tournament specific preparation – all the referees participating in that specific tournament are obliged to participate in the programme specifically designed for that competition.

Mr REK notes that referees are participating very actively in the e-learning and that, according to statistical indicators, the activity has been growing since the introduction in 2014 also in the other Volleyball Confederations as well as the FIVB.

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The new technological applications are now widely used in refereeing, namely the ES Bench App and the ES Referee App. The tablets give referees real-time information during the matches and have also proven to be useful tools for coaches who use them for substitution, time-outs and to be clear with the video-check. Wireless communication has also been used extensively to exchange information with the First Referee, for example by the Challenge Referee to establish the result of the Challenge.

Following its introduction in Beach Volleyball in 2015, the E-Scoresheet Beach is working well. As for the use of the Video Challenge System, Mr REK remarks that 23 high definition cameras are needed to cover all the requirements of this system. The old system, on the other hand, allows the referees to judge ball in and ball out for all lines, to look for the foot photo on the back line and the central line, and to analyse net touches and block touches as well as the three metre line and the antennae.

Mr REK mentions the education of new referee delegates which is also an important item on the ERC’s agenda, as well as the Beach Volleyball Education Responsible seminar, the aim of which is to improve and maintain the level of Beach Volleyball played in Europe.

To conclude his presentation, Mr REK shows a short but entertaining video clip depicting Snow Volleyball, which is one of the major challenges for the ERC at the moment.

The complete presentation of the Refereeing Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

9.7 SPORTS ORGANISING COMMISSION (MR PIERRE MULHEIMS)

Mr MULHEIMS begins by referring the General Assembly to the Congress Handbook where the activity report of the European Sports Organising Commission can be found on pages 86 to 94. He then moves on to present some of the highlights of the report.

Mr MULHEIMS asserts the dedication of the ESOC in the past four years to the continuing improvement of the CEV competitions and the development of new ideas for the future of European Volleyball. He states that the 2014-2015 season was a busy time for the Commission. During the annual meeting, the ESOC members analysed the past competitions and proposed necessary changes to the CEV Board of Administration. The competition calendar has been updated and the Drawing of Lots as well as the seeding of the Championships and Qualifications have been prepared and carried out. Moreover, the draft regulations for the new U16 Women and U17 Men have been presented to the CEV Board of Administration.

Mr MULHEIMS points out also the involvement of the ESOC in the establishment of the new CEV Volleyball Regulations. Consequently, following the decision of the Board to create a Working Group for the Future European Championships, the ESOC participated in the first meeting of the said Working Group and presented various proposals for a second meeting.

As regards the Championship review, the Final Round of the 2015 CEV U18 Women European Championship took place in Plovdiv and Samokov (BUL) between 28 March and 5 April. There were 32 teams participating, 672 player licences and 20.910 spectators, and the teams on the podium were Russia (gold), Serbia (silver) and Belgium (bronze). The Final Round of the 2015 CEV U19 Men European Championship took place in Sakarya and Kocaeli (TUR) between 4 and 12 April with 32 teams participating, 694 player licences and 24.335 spectators. Poland won the gold medal, Italy silver and Turkey bronze.

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The 2015 European League was played in a reduced format due to the first European Games. The Men European League was played in July and August by 12 teams in two pools with a total of 64 matches with 43.581 spectators and the winner was Slovenia. The Women European League was played by 6 teams in one pool with a total of 36 matches and the title won by Hungary. As for the first European Games, 24 Volleyball Teams participated, 12 Men Teams and 12 Women Teams, with 44 CEV officials including the international referees. There were 104.900 spectators following the matches. The winners were Germany (gold), Bulgaria (silver) and Russia (bronze) for Men, and Turkey (gold), Poland (silver) and Serbia (bronze) for Women.

The CEV European Championships were successfully finalised for Women in The Netherlands with Russia seizing the gold, followed by the Home Team (silver) and Serbia (bronze). The results of the CEV European Championship Men will be known once the games have finalised this weekend in Bulgaria.

Mr MULHEIMS proudly mentions the medallists of the six under-age categories in the 2015 FIVB World Championship: four gold medals, two of which were seized by Russia, one by Italy and one by Poland; one silver medal for Turkey and one bronze medal for Italy. Mr MULHEIMS takes the opportunity to congratulate the teams on their excellent performance and results.

He then moves on to talk about the 2016 European Qualification Rounds. The three Qualification Rounds of the 2016 U19 Women and U20 Men are scheduled as follows:

 First Round to be played between 7 and 10 January 2016  Second Round to be played between 31 March and 3 April 2016  Third Round to be played between 7 and 10 July 2016.

Equally important, the three Qualification Rounds of the 2016/2017 European Championships Men and Women are scheduled as follows:

 First Round to be played between 19 and 22 May 2016  Second Round, comprising two tournaments, one to be played 15-18 September 2016 and the other one to be played 22-25 September 2016  Third Round, comprising two tournaments, the first leg to be played 16-17 May 2017 and the second leg to be played 20-21 May 2017.

The registration deadline for the above Qualification tournaments has been fixed to 20 October 2015 23:59 CET, except for the Small Countries Division whose deadline has been set to 25 October 2015 23:59 CET. Mr MULHEIMS takes the opportunity to remind the teams who have not registered yet that there are only a few days left before the registration process is closed. He then refers to the upcoming Drawing of Lots and Calendar Conference meeting which is scheduled to take place on Saturday 31 October 2015 at the NH Hotel in Luxembourg.

As regards the 2017 U16 and U17 European Championships Men, the deadline for registration proposed by the ESOC is 30 June 2016. The Qualification process will be split in two rounds: the First Round is to be organised by each Zonal Association respectively, with the Small Countries Division qualifying one team for the Final Round from each of the Zonal and Small Countries, and must be played before 15 January 2017; the Second Round is fixed to be played in April 2017. The Final Round is played with 12 teams coming from the First and Second Rounds and is scheduled to take place in July 2017.

Mr MULHEIMS then sets forth to present the plans for the different age groups of the 2017 World Championships, stating that the CEV will organise the qualification tournaments for the U23 World Championship, namely the U22 European Qualification scheduled to take place between 28 and 31 July 2016. There will be two Qualification Rounds with four teams in each, i.e. the team of the

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organiser plus three teams from U19 Women and U20 Men European Ranking. The winner of each of the two tournaments will qualify to the 2017 U23 World Championship.

As for the other age group categories, teams from 2017 CEV U18 Women and U19 Men European Championship will qualify to the 2017 U18 Women and U19 Men World Championship. A European Qualification is also planned for the U20 Women and U21 Men World Championship in 2017, similarly to how it was organised in 2015.

Concerning the FIVB 2018 World Championship, so far 27 Men Teams and 34 Women Teams have registered. Mr MULHEIMS remarks that the CEV Board of Administration has decided to send a reminder to those teams that haven’t registered yet in order to prompt them to send their application to the FIVB for participation in the Championship. The FIVB has requested that the First Round be played before September 2016 and that the Second and Third Rounds should be scheduled before August/September 2017. The ESOC has proposed the following dates for the three European Qualification Rounds:

 First Round to be played between 16-19 May 2016  Second Round to be played 25-28 May 2017  Third Round to be played in August /September 2017.

Finally, in reference to the 2016 Olympic Games, the Women Team of Serbia has already qualified as well as the Men Team of Italy and Mr MULHEIMS takes the opportunity to congratulate them on the qualification. The European Qualification tournament for Women Teams is scheduled to be played between 4 and 9 January 2016 in Ankara (TUR), and for Men Teams between 5 and 10 January 2016 in Berlin (GER). The teams that have qualified so far are the organisers plus the seven highest placed teams from the European ranking after the 2015 European Championship. Furthermore, the teams will be seeded in two pools of four teams playing a single round in each pool followed by the Semi Finals and Finals. The winners of the European Qualification will qualify to the 2016 Olympic Games and the teams which rank second and third will qualify to play in the World Olympic Qualification scheduled for May 2016.

To conclude, Mr MULHEIMS thanks the CEV President, the Board of Administration Members and the Members of the European Sports Organising Commission for their work, as well as the CEV Head Office for their collaboration and support.

The floor is open for questions.

The complete presentation of the Sports Organising Commission Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

Mr Werner AUGSBURGER (SUI) Mr AUGSBURGER has two remarks:  His first remark concerns the date of the Second Round of Qualification for the Junior European Championship. He comments on the fact that having the tournament at the end of March puts the Swiss Volleyball Federation, and most probably also others, in a difficult position because they have to split their best Junior players to participate both in the Junior National Championship and also in the Cup Final.  His second remark concerns the Working Group of the Future of the European Championship. He makes a plea for the Working Group to try to solve the problem of having too many competitions happening around the same time, which makes it hard for the National Federations to prepare and to sort their teams properly for the participation in all these events.

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Mr MULHEIMS explains that the date of the Second Round of Qualification for the Junior European Championship has been set to be played the week before Easter for many years and it is based on the CEV Regulations. As for the second remark, he notes that the ECC always try not to mix up the CEV competitions with the FIVB competitions and that the Working Group are already working on a solution to make the whole Qualification process much more efficient.

Mr AUGSBURGER remarks that the period for National Teams starts mid-May, which means that the clubs have to release the players participating in the respective tournaments by the end of April.

Mr MEYER points out that the period in question (May till October) is reserved for the senior competitions. However, he acknowledges the difficulty with this set period which might arise from the fact that some countries use their junior players to play in the senior competitions. He admits that this is an issue which has been the basis of some extensive discussions and that the CEV are trying to find solutions.

10. Working Group Reports

10.1 FUTURE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Mr MULHEIMS outlines the formula for the Future European Championships drafted by the Working Group. He starts by describing the purpose of the European Championships:

 To have a long-lasting legacy inside each involved country  To establish Volleyball as an event brand  To improve the image of Volleyball as a sport and the CEV as an institution  To provide value and benefit not only for the host country but also for all who compete in it  To motivate and encourage all National Federations to do more to promote the general image of our sport.

During the two recent Future European Championships Working Group meetings, they put together the following conclusions for the future (starting with the 2019 edition):

 More matches to be played with the Home Team as this will significantly increase the chances of attracting more spectators  Wider approach is necessary including promotion and communication aspects  CEV should provide more of a lead and guide the organisers via closer collaboration  A change in the mentality of stakeholders is required.

Starting with the 2019 edition, the CEV can organise a new Final Rounds format with 20 teams for Women and 24 for Men. The competition method for the Final Rounds will be: preliminary pool → the 8th Final → the Quarter Final → the Semi Final → the Final.

Furthermore, the Qualification phase will be played in two rounds and should be finished at the latest in January of the year of the Final Round. The preliminary pools will be played in 4 pools of 5 teams for Women and in 4 pools of 6 teams for Men. The four organisers of the preliminary pools, one organiser per one pool, will qualify directly to the Final phase and the four highest ranking teams will qualify directly to the preliminary pool from the previous edition of the European Championship.

The format of the four pools will be as follows:

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 Pool A: one venue, one country, one preliminary pool and the 8th Finals followed by the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals  Pool B: one venue, one country, one preliminary pool and the 8th Finals followed by the Quarter Finals  Pool C: one venue, one country, one preliminary pool  Pool D: one venue, one country, one preliminary pool.

Mr MULHEIMS announces that the candidature process for both Men and Women will be postponed. He also states that the ESOC is working on the details and will present the amended Regulations to the CEV Board of Administration in February 2016. Once the amendments have been approved, the CEV will open the process for candidatures to be presented with a minimum of two months before the next CEV Board of Administration meeting. Four organisers per gender should be preferred in order to have the Home Team playing in each preliminary pool, although additional one or two countries can still apply for the organisation in the four venues.

The floor is open for questions.

Mr Peter SPRENGER (NED) Mr SPRENGER compliments the proposals of the Working Group but asks why it has been decided to play only two matches per day. In his view, it would be better to have three matches per day, which would mean the host country plays every day. With 8 teams per gender playing only two matches per day there will be eight days in total and three days when the host country is not playing.

Mr MULHEIMS explains that in general the ESOC is trying to establish a system with only two matches per day. He adds that in the 15 matches played in the preliminary round there will indeed be rest days for Home Teams when only the Away Teams are playing. There will be one match played in advance and the organisers will play it opening the tournament, followed by 14 matches divided into 7 days of two matches each.

Mr MEYER remarks that the proposals of the Working Group are not final yet and changes could be made based on the received feedback and assures Mr SPRENGER that his comments have been duly noted and will be taken into consideration when working out the final version of the formula for the Future European Championships.

10.2 FUTURE EUROPEAN CUPS

The topic was already discussed at point 9.2.

11. Proposals from National Federations

Mr MEYER points out that this is a mandatory point on the agenda and the deadline for the National Federations to send their proposals was 6 months prior to the General Assembly. The CEV has received no proposals.

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12. Statutes, General Regulations, Disciplinary Regulations, Mediation Chamber, CEV Tribunal

Mr FISCHER presents the proposed changes to the CEV Regulatory Framework which encompass the following points:

 CEV Statutes  CEV General Regulations  CEV Disciplinary Regulations  CEV Mediation Chamber Regulations  CEV Volleyball Competition Regulations.

As regards the proposed changes to the CEV statutes, the amendments are as follows:

 Renumber the references to the CEV General Regulations  Ensure the respect of all CEV Regulations under one name, i.e. “Regulations”  Clarify the fact that National Federations and the CEV Board of Administration can submit proposals directly to the CEV General Assembly  Harmonise the terminology through the CEV Regulatory Framework  Make a global reference to respecting the Law of Luxembourg.

In the absence of any questions or comments, the proposed changes to the CEV statutes are unanimously approved and adopted by the CEV General Assembly.

Mr FISCHER moves on to elaborate on the changes to the CEV General Regulations approved by the Board of Administration. He informs the General Assembly that starting with 2016, the CEV will be using the FIVB categorisation (categories 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) instead of class A, B and C for the annual contribution fees. The fees themselves remain the same.

It has also been decided to amend the duties of the Commission Presidents and Working Groups. As regards the CEV Disciplinary Regulations, the Board of Administration have adopted the change of the name from the former Code of Discipline to the CEV Disciplinary Regulations.

Finally, he presents the proposed Members to the Credential Commission:

 Mr Pietro Bruno CATTANEO (ITA)  Mr Rogerio Pedro DE MACEDO OLIVEIRA (POR)  Mr Slobodan MILOSEVIC (SRB)  Ms Lisa WAINWRIGHT (ENG).

In the absence of any questions or comments, the proposed candidates for the Credential Commission are unanimously approved by the CEV General Assembly.

The complete presentation of the Statutes, General Regulations, Disciplinary Regulations, Mediation Chamber and CEV Tribunal Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

13. New Media – Progress Report

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Mr FERRARO greets the General Assembly and recounts his presentation from the previous General Assembly in 2014 in Antalya (TUR), where the CEV social media platforms were introduced for the first time, including the first ever CEV tweet released with the help of Mr MEYER, the CEV President. He remarks that a lot has been achieved since then and shares the following quote about the power and potential of social media: “Social media is the ultimate equaliser. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone who is willing to engage”.

Mr FERRARO speaks about the commitment of the CEV Communications Department to developing the CEV Facebook page and Twitter account and proudly informs everybody of the growing numbers of followers. He notes that the success in social media takes time and patience and the CEV are working on keeping up the positive trends.

One of the main objectives of the CEV being present in the social media is to inform the followers of what is happening on the Volleyball and Beach Volleyball stage without replicating the content of the CEV website. The social media content is specifically tailored and includes lots of videos, pictures and infographics. Moreover, it is a tool for promoting the sport and for interacting with the fans. The remarks and the feedback from the fans are valuable and should be included in any deliberations regarding the future of Volleyball.

Mr FERRARO points out the fact that the majority of CEV social media followers are men and the most notorious countries are Italy, Turkey and Poland. There are not that many teenagers following the CEV on Facebook as they prefer to use Instagram instead.

As for the future plans, the main focus is on the interaction with fans. #VolleyHeroes have been introduced this year at the beginning of the European Championship to invite the Volleyball fans watching the competition to share the highlights of the event that they captured. The CEV are also planning to organise a “share” & “like” contest in order to engage more with the fans and generate more social media traffic.

Mr FERRARO goes on to talk about the creation of the EuroVolley Facebook page, which is to serve as a common platform for the organisers of CEV competitions. The EuroVolley Facebook account is sent over to the appointed organisers to help them build on the fan base that has already been created. By means of this account, the CEV can control what is published, on the one hand, and help organisers reach out to as many people as possible on the other. Moreover, the CEV are looking into expanding the cooperation with the FIVB and the Press Officers of the National Federations by promoting each other’s social media content.

As regards Twitter, the numbers are also growing steadily, with an average of 600 new followers every month. The use of this platform allows dispatching information in almost real time, thereby being useful for keeping the fans up-to-date with what is going on in Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. Similarly to Facebook, it provides the CEV with plenty of feedback from the fans and followers and the CEV Press Officers are working really hard on being as reactive as possible and on making the posted information short but powerful, as well as appealing, through the use of pictures, infographics and videos.

Mr FERRARO provides some information on the latest Cross Channel Campaigns. The #FollowFriday serves to shed light on the achievements and activities of a particular National Federation and is released every Friday morning. Its purpose is not only to increase the numbers of followers to the CEV, but also to promote the social media pages of the National Federations. As regards the latest campaign, #VolleyHeroes, the CEV are looking forward to having more posts and messages during the European Championship climax here in Sofia.

Furthermore, the social media channels have also been used to promote the CEV development activities, e.g. the summer festivals targeted at youth. Two specific hashtags have been created for

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this purpose, #LetThemPlay and #SeeUsPlay, where the first one is used by the CEV to promote the specific events and the second one serves to allow the participants to respond and create their own posts related to the events.

There are a number of dedicated actions being implemented in the social media:

 CEV Congress – Live information sharing with #CEVCongress  European Championships – Live updates with #EuroVolleyM, #EuroVolleyW, #EuroBeachVolley  CEV Development - #GrowTheGame

Mr FERRARO comments on the fact that the social media have been also very useful for the Drawing of Lots, allowing for a more efficient delivery of results to the fans, stakeholders, clubs and National Federations.

Finally, Mr FERRARO refers to the developments with YouTube which has been used for the promotion of Volleyball since the beginning of November 2014. So far the focus has been on the production and dissemination of CEV event highlights; however, the goal for the future is to create a video library on YouTube where fans will be able to find all sorts of past and current videos from CEV competitions.

To conclude, Mr FERRARO informs everybody about his new colleague at the CEV Office, Mr Niels HOORELBEKE, who is young and dynamic and is very much into social media, and together they will be working on the further development of CEV social media platforms as they are both very motivated and enthusiastic about the projects. He mentions the possibility of adding an Instagram account and he also asserts the commitment to working on making the CEV website more social media friendly.

The complete presentation of the New Media Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

14. Development

Mr DUNNE starts the CEV Development Report noting that the year 2014/2015 has seen a lot of activity and a great deal of improvement. He mentions the components of the CEV Development Mission Statement:

 The importance of survival and growth – more activity and a sustainable plan  Technical improvements – produce better players, coaches, technical officials and make the events more fun with greater ambiance for the spectators  Education – work with young children (aged 8-14) to create the stars of tomorrow across Europe  Management of National Federations – assist them to become more modern and more efficient to cope with the growing demands of the modern society  Cost cutting – reduce spending by encouraging more activities at the Zonal level and in the Development Centres

Mr DUNNE goes on to talk about the need to focus more locally and more regionally in order to engage with each other and share best practice as well as exchange documents and educational materials related to Volleyball and Beach Volleyball.

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There are currently five CEV Development Centres: Kettering (ENG), Luxembourg (LUX), Milan (ITA), Baku (AZE) and Copenhagen (DEN).

Three of the five Development Centres have been very active, whereas two (Baku and Milan) are committed to delivering more activity in 2016. Luxembourg hosted a Pre-International Referee course in January 2015. England staged two FIVB technical seminars in June 2015 covering the topics of outside hitting and serving plus the skills of blocking. In August 2015, Copenhagen offered a Data Project workshop focused on the E-Scoresheet, DataVolley as well as the new ES Bench and ES Referee Applications.

Mr DUNNE affirms that the focus now is on the junior activity, and, with this in mind, Luxembourg has staged two events this year where the members of the Small Countries Division were taught how to promote events on site. The final activity for 2015 will be a seminar in England on how to better encourage and coach 6-10-year-old children to play Volleyball. As regards the summer activities, Luxembourg and Copenhagen hosted summer camps where kids could learn to play Volleyball. Luxembourg also hosted a summer seminar for coaches.

From the applications received in 2015, 11 were nominated to host the 2015 Youth Summer Festivals between May and September 2015 with the hashtags social media campaign to let the kids upload “selfies” during the events. Following the success of the festival this year - more than 4.200 youngsters took part in the festivals - the CEV are hoping to repeat it next year and the applications will be sent out soon.

The CEV hosted a 2015 SCD Development Seminar in Luxembourg in September which provided its participants with an opportunity to discuss the following topics: competitions, development toolkits, age groups, National Federations’ participation, Beach Volleyball, Development Centres and Action Plans as well as the future funding.

The second edition of the Management Seminar 2015 was held in Sofia on 14-15 October with over 60 delegates attending. It was an opportunity to look at ways of making the National Federations stronger as well as to discuss ways of promoting and selling Volleyball.

Mr DUNNE refers to the Development Fund and notes that there are currently three CEV projects running under the old campaign which was fully funded by the FIVB. Following the changes introduced a few years back, there are now 11 new projects running as part of the new funding stream shared between the FIVB (50%) and the CEV (50%). All of these projects focus on the key parameters set by the FIVB, i.e. the development of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in schools and at junior level, all with a clear emphasis on lasting legacy.

Finally, with regard to future activities, Mr DUNNE notes that the CEV are trying to encourage closer links between the Development Centres, the Zonal Associations and the Small Countries Division as well as the National Federations. There is a Development Centres Directors’ meeting scheduled soon where the activities of 2015 will be reviewed and the calendar for 2016 will be set ensuring that all Development Centres deliver required activities next year. The Beach Volleyball Coordinators seminar which took place earlier in 2015 is also planned for next year and the CEV are planning to organise a Social Media and Developing Press Officers seminar in 2016.

The complete presentation of the Development Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

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15. Snow Volleyball

The founders of the Snow Volleyball organisation, Mr Martin KASWURM and Mr Veit MANNINGER, provide some information on how it all started back in 2009 and how it has evolved since. A short video depicting some impressions of Snow Volleyball is shown, followed by a description of the characteristics of this relatively new competition read out by Mr KASWURM:

Snow Volleyball is a new upcoming sport, globally played by thousands of athletes since 2009. The Snow Volleyball Tour is an annually toured series of events in which the best Volleyball Teams compete for individual event wins, as well as the overall title in their respective genders. The events take place on what is commonly referred to as “mountain centre courts” in extreme terrain.

Mr KASWURM notes that the “mountain centre courts” are most often situated more than 2.000 metres above sea level. The 2015 Snow Volleyball Tour was staged in the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany and the games were played in March and April, which is right in- between the indoor Volleyball season and the Beach Volleyball season.

Mr KASWURM goes on to inform the General Assembly that the 2015 Snow Volleyball Tour was attended by athletes from 20 different nations and it comprised six tour stops in five different countries, attracting media attention and international TV coverage. Moreover, the media, along with the participation of professional Volleyball players, attracted sponsorship, which is a huge step forward. Mr KASWURM notes that there have been many registrations already for next year and they are hoping that, with the 22 hours of TV coverage shown globally and other promotional materials released on Facebook, more interest will emerge and Snow Volleyball will grow.

Mr MANNINGER takes over from that point on in order to present the General Assembly with some of the most important facts and figures. From among the 18 registered countries in the 2015 Snow Volleyball Tour, there were two from outside of Europe, namely the USA and Brazil. There were 32 Men Teams and 16 Women Teams playing in two days on four courts per tour stop. The capacity of the centre court is normally between 2.000 and 3.000 spectators, including both sitting and standing ones. The entry to the event is free of charge and the visitors so far have been both fans who came specifically for the event as well as skiing and snowboarding tourists.

Normally, the competitions are played in three days, from Friday through Sunday. Friday is reserved for the kids from local schools who, when interested, are given easy access to the game and are coached by professional players. On Saturday, there is the Qualifications tournament followed by games played by two Men groups with 4 teams each and one Women group with four teams on Sunday.

Mr MANNINGER proudly announces the new name of the Snow Volleyball Tour for 2016, the “2016 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour”, organised in collaboration with the European Volleyball Confederation. The stops so far planned for next year are as follows:

 Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic, 11-13 March 2016  Wagrain in Austria, 18-20 March 2016  Plan de Corones in Italy, 1-3 April 2016.

Mr MANNINGER asserts that the focus is on making it a family and corporate entertainment event and the plan is to include: VIP lounge, online games, road show, side events, video production, iPhone app, prize money, company tournaments and merchandise as well as B2B events.

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The participating athletes have a digital info point where they can see all the information concerning the event results, ranking, etc. within one hour of the competition. The video production serves to show highlight clips from the Finals and Semi Finals.

Mr MANNINGER concludes the presentation by inviting everyone present at the Congress to participate in the 2016 Snow Volleyball Tour and thanks them for their attention.

The floor is open for questions.

The complete presentation of the Snow Volleyball Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

Mr Gudmundur Helgi THORSTEINSSON (ISL) Mr THORSTEINSSON thanks Mr KASWURM and Mr MANNINGER for their innovative and motivating presentation. He would like to know if the Snow Volleyball Tour is an event sanctioned by the CEV or if it is a promotional competition. He also inquires about the rules for this event. Mr MEYER explains that this is the first time the CEV is involved in the Snow Volleyball Tour, therefore it is still work in progress. However, as a promotional competition it is sanctioned by the CEV. As regards the rules, some of the general Volleyball rules already apply and the CEV will progress accordingly.

Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE Mr HOLZGRAEFE inquires whether the Snow Volleyball encounters any problems with the cold and the wind high up in the mountains and if this is a risk factor for possible injuries.

Mr KASWURM explains that no injuries have been reported since the start of this competition in 2009 except for some bruises. He assures everyone that there are special machines in place used to prepare the centre courts and that the Snow Volleyball Teams are always working closely with the medical teams on site in case there are any accidents. He also notes that so far the lowest recorded temperatures oscillated around -5°C during the events.

16. Zonal Associations & Small Countries Division Reports

16.1 BALKAN VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION – BVA

Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL, Balkan Volleyball Association General Secretary, addresses the General Assembly with his presentation of the BVA 2015 activities. He notes that the President and Vice- President of the BVA are nominated on a yearly basis according to an alphabetical order. This is done during the BVA General Assembly held every year in December in the country of the current President. Mr MAVROMATIS is the current BVA President. There are currently ten members of the BVA: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.

Last year’s XVI BVA General Assembly was held in Moldova and served as the basis for some important discussions and decisions that serve to develop Volleyball in the Balkan region. The next important meeting for the BVA was the Technical Commission meeting where the President of the Commission, Mr BAKODIMOS, and the members evaluated the past season, discussed previous sport events and implemented new rules wherever necessary.

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Mr MUTLUGIL goes on to talk about the BVA Kids Festival which aims to connect kids from the different countries of the Balkan region, to enable them to enjoy Volleyball, to share each other’s culture, to make friends and to connect with the Volleyball community. Each country taking part in this event was represented by two teams of six, with three boys and three girls. The 2015 edition of this event was organised in Kocaeli (TUR) and was particularly successful as it was combined with the National Sovereignty and the Children’s Day of Turkey.

The organisers of the BVA Volleyball events in 2015 were: Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, F.Y.R. of Macedonia and Romania. The events comprised some exciting matches played under the umbrella of the CEV and the FIVB. The BVA is proud to have organised the preliminary level competitions for the past four years and Mr MUTLUGIL notes that the CEV will consider this preliminary Championship as the First Round Qualification of the European Championship in the future.

Mr MUTLUGIL states that the 2014/2015 season saw more activity in Beach Volleyball, especially in the senior categories which were played in three countries: Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. The interest was high among the players as they had a chance to add more points to their rankings.

To conclude his report, Mr MUTLUGIL refers to the BVA targets and plans for the growth of Volleyball in the member countries. He mentions that the focus is on grass roots projects which the BVA consider very important for the future of Volleyball in the Balkan region. He then thanks the CEV Board of Administration for the financial support which has helped increase participation levels and wishes all the candidates of the CEV elections the best of luck.

The complete presentation of the Balkan Volleyball Association Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

16.2 EASTERN EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL ZONAL ASSOCIATION – EEVZA

Ms Inara BROKANE, EEVZA Secretary General, presents the 2014-2015 report of the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association. The 2014 EEVZA U18 Volleyball Zonal Championship Men was played in Belarus with the participation of 7 countries, while the 2014 EEVZA U17 Volleyball Zonal Championship Women was staged in Latvia with a record breaking participation of 9 EEVZA countries. Ms BROKANE notes that the events were supported by not only the National Federations but also by the local organisers and the concerned municipalities.

The 2014 EEVZA Beach Volleyball Zonal Tour marked a great success in the development of Beach Volleyball inside the EEVZA with the participation of the following countries: Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Latvia and Georgia, the latter of which was a first time host of the Men and Women Final in their country. There were as many as 64 Women Teams and 90 Men Teams participating with the hope of gaining extra FIVB ranking points. The most important competition for the young generation, the U18 Beach Volleyball Championship, was organised in Lithuania in 2014 and served also to prepare the players for CEV high level competitions.

As regards the 2015 EEVZA Beach Volleyball Zonal Tour, there have so far been four Women tours and two Men tours accomplished, with the Final initially scheduled to be played in Azerbaijan postponed and now to be played in Latvia. Armenia organised the U18 Championship for the first time with great support from the EEVZA and the participation of experienced supervisors from Poland and many international referees who all together helped to make the competition a high level one. The titles of the 2014 EEVZA Beach Volleyball competitions were mostly seized by Latvia and Russia, as well as Ukraine, whose players regularly participate in the CEV and FIVB official World Competitions.

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Ms BROKANE also adds that in order to improve the level of the EEVZA competitions and to allow for the exchange of experiences, neutral referees and supervisors from various countries are regularly appointed for the Beach Volleyball Tours.

There are a number of competitions coming up before the end of 2015:

 2015 EEVZA U19 Men Volleyball Zonal Championship in Russia  2015 EEVZA U18 Women Volleyball Zonal Championship in Georgia  2015 EEVZA U17 Men Volleyball Zonal Championship in Poland  2015 EEVZA U16 Women Volleyball Zonal Championship in Belarus.

To conclude, Ms BROKANE reports on the meetings held in the 2014/2015 reporting period. There was one General Assembly held by the EEVZA in 2014, in October in Turkey, during which some key decisions were made by the member federations. Moreover, Beach Volleyball Commission hold their regular meetings each year. The year 2015 marked a 10-year anniversary for the EEVZA and an anniversary meeting was organised in Jurmala (LAT) in August 2015. All member federations participated, accompanied by the CEV President Mr MEYER as well as Mr HRONEK who were invited as honorary guests from the CEV. The meeting served to review the achievements of the past ten years as well as to announce new goals for the future.

Finally, Ms BROKANE thanks the CEV for their support which is invaluable for the EEVZA in their attempts to further foster the growth of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in Eastern Europe.

The complete presentation of the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

16.3 MIDDLE EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL ZONAL ASSOCIATION – MEVZA

Mr Karl HANZL, Middle European Volleyball Zonal Association President, notes that the 2014/2015 season has been one of the busiest for the MEVZA so far with nine meetings organised serving to analyse the current situation and make various changes. He mentions that the experienced leading team of the MEVZA, consisting of the top representatives from the six member federations, has been extended by a young operative team of coordinators. One of the major decisions of the reporting period has been the integration of the National Federation of Israel into the MEVZA. Furthermore, the Middle European League has been turned into the Middle European Cup with 9 Men Teams and 9 Women Teams participating in 2015/2016 from five National Federations.

Mr HANZL remarks that the Beach Volleyball competitions have been successful and appreciated by all participants and organisers. A total of 115 teams from all seven member federations participated in the MEVZA Championships of all categories. The first winter indoor Championships will be staged in November 2015 in Prague. Listing the various competitions of the association over the season, Mr HANZL refers to the winners of the last Middle European League season: (AUT) for Men and Nova KBM Branik MARIBOR (SLO) for Women.

He then moves on to talk about the future and states that the MEVZA are planning to add new competitions to the existing ones, including new indoor competitions, the U16 age category as well as four new tournaments in Beach Volleyball for Men and Women, respectively. Finally, he expresses his gratitude to the CEV and the FIVB for the financial support and especially thanks the CEV Coordinator, Mr HRONEK, and the CEV President, Mr MEYER, as well as the CEV Board of Administration for the trust put in Zonal Associations in general.

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He concludes his presentation by appealing to the future CEV Leaders to take into consideration the fact that most of the European Volleyball clubs are finding it more and more difficult to cope with the financial burden of being able to participate in the CEV competitions and to deal with the increasing bureaucracy related to the events. The players of those clubs, a lot of them passionate amateurs hungry for the sport, form the foundation of Volleyball in Europe and are found engaging in Volleyball outside of the classical structures as a result of the said issues. Moreover, Mr HANZL comments on the growing mobility of European citizens and points out the fact that the increasing CEV transfer costs do not reflect the needs of the current life style, again making it more difficult for some Volleyball players to engage in CEV competitions.

Mr MEYER thanks Mr HANZL for the presentation and the concerns he has raised and assures him that the CEV Leadership has taken note of his comments and they will be considered when making decisions regarding the future of CEV competitions.

The complete presentation of the Middle European Volleyball Zonal Association Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

16.4 NORTHERN EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL ZONAL ASSOCIATION – NEVZA

Mr Timo KENAKKALA, Northern European Volleyball Zonal Association President, addresses the General Assembly asserting that the NEVZA countries have been committed to finding ways to foster development of Volleyball in cooperation with the CEV, despite their geographical distances. Separated by seas as well as the ocean, they face long journeys and high travel expenses which are especially challenging for the smaller member countries, but they share the strong will for cooperation which is moving their activities forward.

Mr KENAKKALA notes that the NEVZA are trying to modernise and facilitate their decision making processes by making sure to meet at least twice a year. He mentions the development programme implemented after last year’s congress which serves to strengthen the cooperation between the member federations. Junior and Youth development is at the core of NEVZA’s activities and more resources are needed, as well as the development of stronger links with key commercial partners.

Mr KENAKKALA refers to the NEVZA meeting held in December 2014 during which they discussed social media implementation and new social media-friendly web pages in order to facilitate the distribution of information and achieve a more positive image of Volleyball. Other topics discussed included competition regulations and competition management software. The next meeting was held in September 2015 in preparation for the CEV General Assembly and the NEVZA discussed future activities as well as the status of the development plan. One of the major challenges was the management of the national, international and NEVZA competitions due to the fact that the CEV competitions calendar is quite full and it is hard to find suitable dates. Certain areas of the development plan had to be put on hold due to the limited time and resources.

Mr KENAKKALA moves on to talk about the 2014 NEVZA Volleyball activities, the U17 NEVZA Zonal Championship in England and the U19 NEVZA Zonal Championship in Denmark, and congratulates Norway, Sweden and Finland on their achievements. The 2014-2015 NEVZA Club Zonal Championship Finals (M&W) were held in Sweden and Denmark, and the NEVZA are introducing the U17 Beach Volleyball Zonal Championship this autumn. The U16 Volleyball Zonal Championships will be added to the 2016 calendar of events following the decision of the CEV Board of Administration.

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With regard to the NEVZA Beach Volleyball activities, Finland organised senior tours for Men and Women in 2014, while Denmark organised the respective tours in 2015. Other senior tournaments were also staged in Finland, Sweden and England.

Mr KENAKKALA moves on to discuss the objectives of the NEVZA Development Plan, which includes the annual update of the objectives and goals of the NEVZA as well as the discussion about the expectations of the NEVZA member countries to make sure they are in line with the goals and objectives of the CEV. The NEVZA are also committed to improving communication procedures and working practices, and they are trying to find new funding possibilities as money is a key factor in determining operations and activities. Mr KENAKKALA takes the opportunity to appeal to the FIVB President and the CEV to consider offering new funding streams for NEVZA projects.

As a last point of the report, Mr KENAKKALA remarks on the keywords for the future of the NEVZA: strategy, target setting, openness, development and commitment. He expresses the wish to further develop and strengthen the association and stresses the importance of amateur Volleyball players who, in line with the earlier remarks of Mr HANZL, should not be forgotten and disregarded.

Mr MEYER thanks Mr KENAKKALA and again assures everyone that the CEV will take all the remarks into consideration when deciding the future of Volleyball competitions.

The complete presentation of the Northern European Volleyball Zonal Association Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

16.5 SMALL COUNTRIES DIVISION – SCD

Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING, Small Countries Division President, announces that she has been re- elected for another mandate and states that she appreciates the trust put in her and welcomes also the other five elected members of the SCD Board of Administration.

She then refers to the main activities of the SCD in terms of development and lists the components of the SCD vision for 2020. The strategic plan of the SCD encompasses performance camps, which have mainly to do with the work of the Luxembourg FIVB and CEV Development Centre, and Youth Development, which includes the new U16 and U17 European Championships as well as the extension to the Youth Continental Cup. Beach Volleyball is also a significant area of the strategic plan and will be presented in more detail later on in the presentation.

As regards financial matters, Ms FLEMING states that the Small Countries Division is doing very well, and she takes the opportunity to thank the FIVB President, Dr Ary S. GRACA F°, for his support with International Transfers. She also mentions the new web design and improved social media. She then proudly notes that all SCD reports are delivered in time and within the rules and regulations of the CEV.

Ms FLEMING comments on the SCD meetings held in the reporting period 2014/2015 and stresses the importance of those meetings as opportunities to get together with a common sense of purpose and a shared vision as well as the passion to move forward and develop grass root Volleyball. She remarks on one of the main new strategies within the 2012 SCD Vision, the Talking Small Countries Division, with the Small Countries actively involved in all social media platforms including Snapshot, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. She also notes that the use of videos on YouTube has helped increase participation and involvement.

Ms FLEMING briefly mentions the various competitions of the reporting period, with the two major Championships, CEV SCD 2015 Finals for Men and Women, held in Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

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She then moves on to talk about the various future plans and activities. The SCD Executive Committee has been re-elected during the SCD General Assembly which took place just before the CEV General Assembly here in Sofia. Next year’s SCD General Assembly is planned to be held separately from the CEV General Assembly. The first SCD Beach Volleyball Championships Men and Women will be held in 2016, with the Finals scheduled to be played in June in Scotland.

To conclude, Ms FLEMING expresses her gratitude to Mr MULHEIMS and Mr FISCHER who have been of great help and support to the SCD but are now finishing their membership in the CEV Leadership. Mr MEYER congratulates Ms FLEMING on the achievements of the SCD and in the absence of any questions, the next presentation follows.

The complete presentation of the Small Countries Division Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

16.6 WESTERN EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL ZONAL ASSOCIATION – WEVZA

Mr Luis MUCHAGA, Secretary General of the Western European Volleyball Zonal Association, recalls the previous General Assembly which was the first time the WEVZA presented their annual activity report. The now third WEVZA General Assembly was held in Frankfurt in April 2015 and served to discuss and approve a series of decisions on administrative, financial and technical matters needed to implement an action plan. The meeting was chaired by the CEV President, Mr MEYER, who joined it to provide the WEVZA members with his much appreciated experience and guidance.

Other important WEVZA meetings include the WEVZA Executive Committee Meeting, which was held in February 2015 in Amsterdam and served to evaluate the previous season and to prepare the paperwork, as well as the CEV Zonal Associations Annual Meeting held in the framework of the European Volleyball Gala in July in Vienna in order to evaluate the performance of the Zonal Associations. Additionally, there has been one more meeting, an extraordinary WEVZA General Assembly here in Sofia, and as a result of the meeting, Mr Agustin MARTIN SANTOS was entrusted as President for the period 2015-2017, accompanied on the Executive Committee by Mr Vicente DE ARAUJO and Mr Willy BRUNNINX.

Mr MUCHAGA asserts that the most important objectives of the WEVZA are to contribute to the development of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in the Western European region, to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation between the WEVZA National Federations and to provide regional competitions with a particular focus on the Youth categories. With all this in mind, the WEVZA released four Volleyball Championships in the summer of 2015: U16 Women in Spain, U17 Men in Italy, U18 Women in France and U19 Men in Spain. The participation was excellent with the U16 and U17 categories staged for the first time by the WEVZA in the anticipation of and as a pathway for the newly created Zonal Qualification for the CEV European Championship in 2017.

Mr MUCHAGA proudly reports on the increasing Beach Volleyball activities within the WEVZA compared to previous years with matches played in three different categories in 2015: U17 Men and Women played in Belgium; U19 Men and Women played in Portugal; and U21 Men and Women played also in Portugal. The beaches of Portugal provided the perfect setting for these tournaments accompanied by excellent facilities and high standard levels of officiating and playing. Belgium was a first time organiser of the WEVZA Beach Volleyball Championship, which was also the First Round Qualifier for the 2016 U17 FIVB Beach Volleyball Championship.

The six senior 2015 WEVZA Beach Volleyball competitions were played in Spain, France and Italy between May and July 2015, and the 2015 WEVZA Beach Volleyball Zonal Tour, which allocates

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points for the FIVB Beach Volleyball ranking, had its first stop in Barcelona (ESP), then later on moved to Montpelier (FRA), only to be finalised in Rome and Senigallia (ITA). The tour was a great success with the participation of 111 teams and 36 referees and the WEVZA has already received some applications to organise the next year’s tour.

On another note, Mr MUCHAGA refers to other activities of the WEVZA, which in 2015 included the WEVZA Volleyball Coaches Seminar organised in Valladolid (ESP) in June delivered in English by three international lecturers with 67 attendees from five different countries. The seminar focused on Youth talent training and development. Another important event was the Beach Youth Festival, WEVZA Beach for Peace, organised in The Hague (NED) at the end of June 2015, which coincided with the start of the Beach Volleyball World Championship and focused on young WEVZA players giving them an opportunity to mix sport with fun and culture.

To finish his presentation, Mr MUCHAGA thanks everyone for their attention.

The complete presentation of the Western European Volleyball Zonal Association Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17. Progress Reports of 2016 and 2017 Organisers

17.1 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES – EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION – WOMEN – TUR

Ms Nilufer SHIMONSKY, proudly reports on the organisation of the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games European Qualification Women in Ankara (TUR). She congratulates Serbia on having qualified already and wishes the best of luck to the countries which will compete to join Serbia, i.e. Russia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Poland and Turkey. The first ranked team of this competition will qualify directly, while the second and third ranked teams will have another chance to qualify during the World Qualification in Japan.

It is the second time that this European Qualification for Olympics is organised in Ankara (TUR), which offers the perfect setting for this event. Contracts have already been signed with three hotels and the Nilufer transportation company. The teams will be carried between the hotels and the competition halls on high technology buses and officials will be taken in VIP transportation vehicles, all escorted by the police.

Crowds of fans are expected to fill the Turkish National Federation Baskent competition hall which will be ready to host the games with its 7.600 seating capacity. Two other competition halls in the same complex will be available for training sessions and warm-ups, as well as a fitness centre, laboratory, Volleyball school, hotel and federation offices.

Ms SHIMONSKY then lists the already confirmed sponsors: Acibadem (medical support), Nestle (water supply), Amway (promotion and marketing), Orkid (advertisement) and Show Radyo (advertisement). The marketing and promotional teams are working hard on the pending issues, which include:

 Inserts in the national and local newspapers  TV and radio channels as well as websites for the circulation of the organisation plan in order to reach approximately one million people

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 PR organisation in elementary schools in Ankara with 5.000 free tickets given to students  10.000 free entrance invitations distributed as part of shopping mall activities  Quiz shows organised with the support of Show Radyo  Dressing Ankara with posters, banners and billboards  Visiting national newspapers and TV channels by the Turkish Volleyball Federation  Link posted on the Turkish Volleyball Federation website  Special videos made and posted on social media for each team participating in the event  Sign balls and T-shirts distributed among the social media followers  Photograph sessions in shopping malls and other special locations  A free pass given to every licenced under-age player and their team in Ankara  Shuttle services organised and dressed to go around the city  Embassies and hotels engaged to share the event  SMS messages to reach the neighbours of the competitions hall

Ms SHIMONSKY concludes her presentation inviting everyone at the the General Assembly to take part in the event and thanks them for their attention.

The complete presentation of the 2016 Olympic Games European Qualification Women Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.2 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES – EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION – MEN – GER

Mr Arne DIRKS, the Managing Director of German Volleyball Sport GmbH – a commercial entity of the German Volleyball Federation, starts his presentation with a short video setting the mood for the 2016 Olympic Games European Qualification Men to be hosted by German Volleyball Sport GmbH in Berlin (GER) on 5-10 January 2016.

Mr DIRKS informs the General Assembly about the competition venue in Berlin, the Max-Schmeling- Halle, which has a capacity of over 8.000 people and meets all the necessary requirements in terms of media and hospitality needs: 105 media seats with the possibility of adding more, and a VIP lounge of 350 seats with the possibility to open a second VIP facility.

Mr DIRKS remarks on the accommodation deals signed with two four-star hotels, one hotel for the teams and one for the officials. Both hotels have experience with sport events and related requirements, and they are within the close vicinity of both the competition venue (12 to 16 minutes) and the airport (30 minutes).

As regards the promotional plan, Mr DIRKS mentions the key points, e.g. the quick access for fans to be informed and buy tickets. He also comments on the use of social media to highlight the teams that have qualified each week, to present stories about key players, show pictures, movies as well as to send newsletters. The Facebook and Instagram pages for the event are in German but Mr DIRKS assures everyone that they are cooperating with the CEV Communications Department to have the content available also in English. The Twitter account is already in English and the numbers of followers of the various platforms are growing.

Finally, Mr DIRKS notes that the participating National Volleyball Federations will receive an email with a direct link to buy the tickets as soon as the participants of the game are known. The link will be available in separate blocks for each participating federation to sell tickets in their countries and celebrate the event with their home fans.

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The complete presentation of the 2016 Olympic Games European Qualification Men Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.3 2016 CEV U19 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN – SVK/HUN

Mr Tomas SINGER, the Vice-President of the National Federation of Slovakia, begins his presentation on the progress in the organisation of the 2016 CEV U19 European Championship Women by asserting the fact that the two National Volleyball Federations of Slovakia and Hungary have a proven track record of experience organising successful CEV and FIVB events and are working hard on providing great results also this time.

The event will begin on 27 August 2016 with the Preliminary Rounds and end on 4 September 2016 with the Final and Classification matches. The proposed competition halls are: the Nitra city sport hall in Slovakia with a capacity of 2.500 seats and the University sport hall in Györ (HUN) with a capacity of 2.000 seats. The hotels booked for the event are the same as those used during the 2014 CEV U20 European Championship Men in Slovakia. As for the games in Hungary, there are two hotels booked, one for the teams and one for the officials. The event’s destination airport is the Vienna Schwechat airport, which is about 110 kilometres away from Györ (HUN) and 140 kilometres from Nitra (SVK). Transport has been organised from the airport to the hotels and back as well as between the hotels and the venues.

The two National Volleyball Federations of Slovakia and Hungary have established a Common Organising Committee to coordinate the management of the competition, monitor the budget and finance, marketing, media and communication. The local organising committees are in charge of logistics, accommodation and medical services. As regards promotional activities, aside from the local promotion in the form of posters and banners, they are using the various social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – and will be launching the official website of the Championship on 1 January 2016. There are also some side events planned, e.g. the Big Mini Volleyball Championship organised in schools to catch the attention of the younger generations.

Finally, Mr SINGER sends wishes of success to all the teams and thanks everyone for their attention.

The complete presentation of the 2016 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship Women Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.4 2016 CEV U20 VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – MEN - BUL

Mr Ilia ILIEV from the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation presents the progress report on the organisation of 2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship Men. He asserts the competence of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation in organising sport events with a proven track record of experience. The cities chosen for the event are Varna and Plovdiv, both of which are the biggest after Sofia Volleyball centres in Bulgaria and have the potential of attracting new fans.

The Organising Committee, with the Bulgarian Minister as the President and the President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation as Vice-President, are supervising the progress in the organisation and preparation for the event supported by the local government and municipalities in both cities. The competition halls and hotels have been confirmed, the website will be launched at the beginning of 2016 along with corresponding social media platforms, and other promotional activities are also

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planned. The dates for the matches have not yet been approved by the CEV Board of Administration and therefore remain to be confirmed. The provisional schedule has the games taking place between 2 and 7 September 2016 with the Finals taking place on Saturday 10 September 2016 in Plovdiv.

As regards the venues, the competition halls in both Plovdiv and Varna are newly renovated and offer very good infrastructure with the relative proximity to international airports as well as the hotels. The Volleyball capital city of Bulgaria, Varna, has hosted other important events in the past, such as the World League matches and the European Championship matches. Plovdiv, the second biggest city of Bulgaria, has been the host of the recently completed Volleyball European Championship Women and offers excellent infrastructure for training and competing. It is also a historically rich city and has a lot to offer in terms of tourism and leisure activities. Mr ILIEV notes that the chosen hotels are very much suitable for accommodating both team members as well as officials, and are located within short distances from the competition halls in both Varna and Plovdiv.

Briefly, Mr ILIEV also comments on some of the promotional activities stating that the most important one is organising school and university tours promoting Volleyball among youngsters. He also remarks that the main goals of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation in organising this competition is to promote Volleyball and expand its influence demonstrating that it is a fun sport, and last but not least, to present Varna and Plovdiv as proven Volleyball centres in Bulgaria and Europe.

The complete presentation of the 2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship Men Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.5 2017 CEV U18 VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN

Mr Michel EVERAERT, the Dutch Volleyball Federation (NEVOBO) Sport Director, begins his presentation with a short video celebrating the past achievements of the Dutch Volleyball Federation. He expresses his gratitude to the CEV Head Office for the help offered with his presentation as he had very little time to prepare it, given the fact that The Netherlands have been confirmed as the organiser of the 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship Women shortly before the XXXVI CEV General Assembly.

Mr EVERAERT informs everybody that the host city for the event will be Arnhem, which is located within a radius of approximately 75-minute ride from the airports of Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. The competition venue will be the Sportcentrum Valkenhuizen with two courts used for both competing and training. There will also be an additional training venue available, the Nationaal Trainingcentrum Papendal with two training courts and a fitness centre.

The event will take place in April 2017, as per the general terms and conditions, and the proposed hotel is the Hotel & Congres Centrum Papendal. The transportation partner of NEVOBO, Riwest, will provide transport services for the competition. The event organisation is done by the NEVOBO Event Team led by Mr Mark SCHRIEL, and entertainment will be provided by the entertainment team of the European Championship and World Championship. Finally, promotional activities will be coordinated by the NEVOBO Communications Department and the city of Arnhem.

As a last point of his presentation, Mr EVERAERT explains that the Dutch Volleyball Federation is extremely excited to be hosting this event as it is an opportunity for them to perform at the highest level. He also notes that by organising this event they hope to make the Dutch Volleyball community proud and to inspire everybody to play Volleyball. He remarks on the agreement with the Deputy Mayor of the city of Arnhem, who, apart from consenting to this event taking place there, also agreed

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to hire someone for 20h/week to promote Volleyball in Arnhem. This person will be going to schools, will organise clinics and kids programmes and will do coaching courses at the local clubs.

The planned promotional events include:

 Volleyball Bus  Toppers on tour where former top players will go to schools and clubs to promote Volleyball  Back to school and Talent Team on Tour, where the Talent Team of Arnhem will go to schools before the event to promote it

NEVOBO also plan to organise a Beach Volleyball event every year as part of the national Beach Volleyball Tour, and they are also planning a Volleyball Youth Festival during the 2017 CEV U18 event to attract the attention of as many kids as possible. Mr EVERAERT comments on an existing video of the Dutch Volleyball National Team showing them go to schools with the aim of inspiring the kids to play Volleyball, resulting in not only the kids becoming interested in the sport but also the teachers, who are now more curious about what happens in the physical education lessons.

The complete presentation of the 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship Women Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.6 2017 CEV U19 VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – MEN – HUN/SVK

Mr Zsolt LUDVIG, the Hungarian Volleyball Federation Secretary General, presents some information on the progress in the preparation for the 2017 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship Men, the organisation of which is split between the National Federations of Hungary and Slovakia. He asserts the experience of both federations in the organisation of similar events, including the CEV Volleyball European League Final in Hungary this year which was a great success.

It is proposed to begin the competition with preliminary pool matches played on 22 April 2017 and to finish with the Finals in Györ (HUN) on 30 April 2017. That same year, Györ will also be hosting the European Youth Olympic Festival which will also be organised in the same sport hall as the U19 European Championship and both of the events are supported by local, regional and national authorities.

Mr LUDVIG states that the competition halls hired for the event, the University Sport hall in Györ (HUN) and the STC Arena in Puchov (SVK) are ready and they provide the perfect facilities needed for the competition. The hotels proposed are the same as those used in the 2015 CEV European Championships in both cities. The proposed airport of destination is Vienna, even though the airports of Bratislava and/or Budapest are also possible alternatives, especially for Puchov which is a bit far from the airport in Vienna (225 km). The Volleyball Federation of Slovakia will provide transfers from the airport to the cities of Györ and Puchov.

To finish off, Mr LUDVIG notes that the Common Organising Committee will be working jointly on the organisation and supervision of the event, which will be further promoted with the launch of international web pages and the use of social media networks.

The complete presentation of the 2017 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship Men Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

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17.7 2017 CEV VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN – AZE/GEO

Ms Nargiz ISMAYILOVA, Head of International Affairs Department at the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation, begins the presentation on the preparations for the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship Women, jointly hosted by Azerbaijan and Georgia. The matches will be played in Baku and Guba (AZE), as well as in Tbilisi (GEO). The competition in Azerbaijan will be staged in two competition halls:

 Heydar Aliyev – a newly constructed sports and exhibition complex with a capacity of 7.800 spectators, situated in the centre of Baku  Guba Olympic Complex – with a capacity of 2.000 spectators, situated 152 km away from Baku.

Mr Andro LEZHAVA, Head of International Affairs Department at the Georgian Volleyball Federation, presents the venue chosen for the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship Women matches played in Georgia – the Tbilisi Sports Palace, which is an indoor sports arena suitable for hosting all kinds of sport events with a capacity of 10.000 spectators.

As regards accommodation, Ms ISMAYILOVA informs everybody that the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation has booked three separate hotels in Baku: two for the teams and one for officials. All the three hotels are within a 5-7 minutes distance from the sport hall of Heydar Aliyev. In Guba, there are two hotels organised, one for the teams and one for officials, and they are also located within close proximity to the Guba Olympic Complex. Mr LEZHAVA briefly mentions the two hotels booked in Tbilisi, which have enough capacity and offer suitable facilities.

Ms ISMAYILOVA then refers to the promotional plan drafted according to the CEV regulations which consists of the organisation of a press conference related to the event (with TV translation), creation of a new logo and launching of an official website. It also includes advertisement on TV, on the radio, in Internet resources, in journals and newspapers, on billboards and intercity buses as well as in the Heydar Aliyev International Airport.

To conclude, Ms ISMAYILOVA presents the Master Plan actions planned for the future:

 Organisation of International CEV Tournaments  Organisation of seminars for coaches  Organisation of seminars for referees  Development of Volleyball schools in regions of Azerbaijan  Organisation of Volleyball Master classes regionally  Popularisation of Volleyball in regions of Azerbaijan

Mr LEZHAVA adds that the Georgian Volleyball Federation together with the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation will launch social media, such as the official website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The complete presentation of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship Women Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.8 2017 CEV VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP – MEN – POL

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Mr Wojciech CZAYKA, International Events Director at the Polish Volleyball Federation, presents the progress in the organisation of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship Men. He notes that the dates haven’t been confirmed yet and the four cities to host the event haven’t been chosen yet from among the six that have applied, i.e. Bydgoszcz, Lodz, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Krakow and Katowice. All the cities are known to the Volleyball community as matches have been organised there before.

Mr CZAYKA mentions some of the promotional activities that have already begun for the event, including the planning of Trophy Tours and the Drawing of Lots ceremony. The Polish National Federation are intending to promote the European Championship during all Volleyball events in Poland, such as the World League, World Grand Prix, European League as well as national competitions. Furthermore, he mentions that they will be cooperating closely with the Polish national broadcaster POLSAT and want to introduce an international promotional plan in close cooperation with the CEV, as well as to organise Promo Tours during the Qualification tournaments to the European Championship.

Finally, Mr CZAYKA states that the website and the social media will be launched before the Qualification tournament. He mentions the Poland Volley Fan Page on Facebook which is very popular and has 325.000 fans and a reach of over 1 million viewers. Poland Twitter has 10.000 followers. He comments on the work still pending, which is primarily the negotiation with the six cities to host the event, followed by the negotiation with the competition halls and hotels. They also need to finalise the media plans for promotion and ticket sales policy in order to support the participating teams as well as fans from all over Europe to be part of this event.

To conclude, a short video is played highlighting the preparation work for the 2014 World Championship in Poland, showing how the National Football Stadium was transformed into a giant Volleyball Arena which welcomed tens of thousands of spectators.

The complete presentation of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship Men Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.9 2016 CEV BEACH VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL – SUI

Mr Werner AUGSBURGER, the Secretary General of Swiss Volley, begins his presentation by paying tribute to the late Christoph STERN, the former President of Swiss Volley, and he thanks, on behalf of Mr STERN’s family, for all the words of comfort and support they have received.

Mr AUGSBURGER expresses his gratitude to the CEV Board of Administration and Executive Committtee members for choosing Switzerland as the host of the 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final. Biel-Bienne (SUI), where the Final will be taking place, has previously successfully organised the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Masters both in 2014 and 2015 and Mr AUGSBURGER asserts that it is a perfect location for these sorts of events. The accommodation has been organised in one big hotel and the distances from the local airports, whether it is Zurich, Geneva, Basel or Berne, are good thanks to the excellent national and local connections.

As regards the promotional plan, the organisers are collaborating with a national private TV channel as well as the international online sports TV, Laola1.tv, for video-LIVE-streams, as well as with the local radio and the print. Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube will be used along with the official website for the event, the www.beachmania.ch. The focus of the promotional plan is to combine sports with entertainment, therefore there will be VIP lounges as well as concerts taking place in the framework of the event.

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Mr AUGSBURGER finishes the presentation inviting the National Federations along with their coaches and athletes to the event scheduled for 1-5 June 2016 and thanks everyone for their attention.

The complete presentation of the 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

17.10 2017 CEV BEACH VOLLEYBALL EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL – LAT

Mr Maris PEKALIS, the Vice-President of the Volleyball Federation of Latvia, greets everybody on his own behalf and on behalf of Mr Atis SAUSNITIS, the President of the Volleyball Federation of Latvia. Following the successful hosting of CEV events back in 2014 and earlier in 2015, Jurmala (LAT) is now preparing to host the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Masters in 2016 as well as the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in 2017.

The 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Jurmala will be a high-level event organised at the sea-side on a nice sandy beach with the two hotels booked for the event within close proximity to the main court as well as three additional courts. The travel distances from the airport to the hotel and the stadium are very short – only 17 kilometres, i.e. approximately 14 minutes by car.

Mr PEKALIS then refers to the promotional plan which includes all activities, public relation campaigns, various promotional competitions and well as the cooperation with the different media. The promotional plan will be developed in more detail within the two years still remaining before the competition.

Mr PEKALIS also lists the various social media which will be used for the event and mentions the pending tasks which include the setting up of the Organising Committee. He notes that the Latvian Volleyball Federation will be attending the 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Biel-Bienne in order to gain some insights and experience.

At the end of his presentation, Mr PEKALIS invites everybody to participate in the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Jurmala (LAT).

The complete presentation of the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final Progress Report can be found annexed to these minutes.

At this point of the agenda, Mr MEYER closes the first day’s session and invites all the delegates and guests to the dinner that will follow.

The next day’s session will start at 09h00.

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18. List of Attendance – Call of the Delegates

Upon completion of the nominative call against the record of attendance, Mr BERBEN confirms that the 55 federations are found present or validly represented.

19. Confirmation of the Mediation Chamber Members

Mr MEYER calls upon Mr FISCHER to confirm the CEV Mediation Chamber Members:

 Mr Jörg SCHWENK  Ms Deborah FREY  Mr Kevin CARPENTER  Mr Kadir GURTEN  Mr Laurent MOREUIL  Mr Ivan TODOROV

Mr FISCHER refers to the fact that there are fewer candidates than the actual number of vacant posts and therefore proposes to vote for all of them at the same time rather than individually. In the absence of any opposition to this, the voting continues and all the proposed candidates are unanimously elected as the new CEV Mediation Chamber Members.

Mr MEYER notes that following the proposal of the CEV Board of Administration, Mr Jörg SCHWENK is appointed as the President of the CEV Mediation Chamber and Ms Deborah FREY as Secretary General.

20. Election of the CEV President

According to the CEV statutes, each National Federation present in the General Assembly receives a ballot and proceeds to cast its vote. Mr FISCHER then calls all 55 National Federations to deposit their ballots in the official box.

The Credential Commission then leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors. In the meantime, Mr MEYER presents the FIVB President, Dr Ary S. GRACA F°, with the CEV gold pin, which is granted to all the new Presidents of the Volleyball Family in Europe, as a token of appreciation and good faith. After that, Mr MEYER asks Mr BERBEN to call out the following National Federation Presidents elected in 2014 and 2015 in order to give them the CEV gold pin:

- Mr Michael KRASHIAS (National Volleyball Federation of Cyprus) - Mr Pasi SYDÄNLAMMI (National Volleyball Federation of Finland) - Mr Eric TANGUY (National Volleyball Federation of France) - Ms Grainne CULLITON (National Volleyball Federation of Ireland) - Mr Jesmond SALIBA (National Volleyball Federation of Malta) - Ms Irena MIHNEVA (National Volleyball Federation of Northern Ireland) - Mr Pawel PAPKE (National Volleyball Federation of Poland)

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After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 55  Collected ballots: 55  Valid ballots: 52  Invalid ballots: 3 (2 invalid and one empty)  Absolute majority: 27 votes

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ is elected as CEV President with 31 votes.

The CEV General Assembly greets the newly elected President with applause.

21. Election of the CEV Board of Administration Members

According to the CEV statutes, each National Federation present in the General Assembly receives a ballot and proceeds to cast its vote.

Mr FISCHER urges everyone to follow the rules indicated on the forms in order to avoid having any more invalid votes. He then reminds the delegates that they can vote for a maximum of 16 people, considering the fact that the CEV Board of Administration is composed of 17 elected members including the CEV President who has already been elected. Ballots containing more than 16 crosses will be considered invalid.

He then calls on all 55 National Federations to collect, mark and then deposit their ballots in the official box.

The Credential Commission leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 55  Collected ballots: 55  Valid ballots: 55  Invalid ballots: 0  Absolute majority: 28 votes

The following candidates obtained absolute majority and are elected Members of the CEV Board of Administration:

PEVKUR Hanno EST 36 ADLER Eric DEN 35 THORSTEINSSON Gudmundur Helgi ISL 35 PĒKALIS Māris LAT 32 EVERAERT Michel NED 30 ARENA Renato ITA 28 BARAČ Zdeslav CRO 28

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CAN SCHÜRMANN Banu LIE 28

Candidates who obtained votes but not the absolute majority:

SHEVCHENKO Stanislav 27 MAVROMATIS Achilleas 26 MUTLUGIL A. Özkan 25 KLEINMANN Peter 24 LAZAROV Dancho 24 PEYTAVIN Annie 24 HALANDA Lubor 22 PAPKE Pawel 22 FLEMING Margaret Ann 21 MARTIN SANTOS Agustin 21 TAKKULA Hannuv 21 BERBEN Philippe 19 DE ARAUJO Vicente H.G. 17 VISAN Georghe 17 HRONEK Jan 14

Considering the fact that eight positions remain vacant, a second round is carried out where simple majority decides on the election results. Mr FISCHER reminds the delegates that they are now voting for a maximum of 8 people and the 55 National Federations proceed again to collect, mark and then deposit their ballots in the official box.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 55  Collected ballots: 55  Valid ballots: 55  Invalid ballots: 0

The following candidates are elected Members of the CEV Board of Administration after the second round, with simple majority:

MUTLUGIL A. Özkan TUR 28 SHEVCHENKO Stanislav RUS 26 MAVROMATIS Achilleas GRE 20 HALANDA Lubor SVK 19 KLEINMANN Peter AUT 18 PAPKE Pawel POL 18

Obtained votes:

FLEMING Margaret Ann 17 LAZAROV Dancho 17 MARTIN SANTOS Agustin 17 BERBEN Philip 16 DE ARAUJO Vicente H.G. 16 PEYTAVIN Annie 15

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TAKKULA Hannu 14 HRONEK Jan 13 VISAN Georghe 12

Three candidates received 17 votes each. Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING, who received 17 votes, automatically fills in one of the two remaining vacancies in order to ensure there are at least two persons of the minority gender in the CEV Board of Administration.

There are two candidates with the same amount of votes remaining for the last available vacancy, Mr Dancho LAZAROV and Mr Agustin MARTIN SANTOS, therefore it is necessary to carry out a third round of voting.

The ballot papers with the two remaining candidates are one more time collected, marked and deposited in the official box and, after an official count behind closed doors, the Credential Commission announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 54  Collected ballots: 54  Valid ballots: 53  Invalid ballots: 1

The following candidate is elected Member of the CEV Board of Administration after the third round, with simple majority:

LAZAROV Dancho BUL 28

Obtained votes:

MARTIN SANTOS Agustin 25

22. Election of the European Representatives to the FIVB Board of Administration

There are 8 vacancies for Europe in the FIVB Board of Administration and each Confederation has the right to conduct its own elections for these vacancies. Four seats are reserved for members of the CEV Board of Administration, while the remaining four are open to all European candidates.

Based on this decision, two separate votes are organised, one for the first four vacancies, open to only those candidates who have just been elected in the CEV Board of Administration, and one for the remaining four vacancies open to all the European candidates.

First vote (candidates who are elected members of the CEV Board of Administration)

According to the statutes, each National Federation present in the General Assembly receives a ballot and proceeds to cast its vote. Mr FISCHER then calls on all the National Federations to deposit their ballots in the official box. When the collection of ballots is finished, the Credential Commission leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

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After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 54  Collected ballots: 54  Valid ballots: 54  Invalid ballots: 0  Absolute majority: 28 votes

The following candidates obtained absolute majority, and are elected Members of the FIVB Board of Administration:

MUTLUGIL A. Özkan TUR 29 SHEVCHENKO Stanislav RUS 28

Obtained votes:

ARENA Renato 25 PEVKUR Hanno 18 EVERAERT Michel 17 THORSTEINSSON G. H. 15 CAN SCHÜRMANN Banu 14 FLEMING Margaret Ann 14 HALANDA Lubor 13 MAVROMATIS Achilleas 9

There are two more seats remaining in the FIVB Board of Administration for candidates who are elected members of the CEV Board of Administration, therefore it is necessary to carry out a second round of voting. Mr FISCHER calls on all the National Federations to deposit their ballots in the official box. When the collection of ballots is finished, the Credential Commission leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 53  Collected ballots: 53  Valid ballots: 53  Invalid ballots: 0

The following candidates are elected Members of the FIVB Board of Administration after the second round with simple majority:

ARENA Renato ITA 25 PEVKUR Hanno EST 16

Obtained votes:

CAN SCHÜRMANN Banu 13 HALANDA Lubor 10

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THORSTEINSSON G.H. 10 FLEMING Margaret Ann 8 MAVROMATIS Achilleas 8 EVERAERT Michel 6

Second vote (all European candidates)

According to the statutes, each National Federation present in the General Assembly receives a ballot and proceeds to cast its vote. Mr FISCHER then calls on all the National Federations to deposit their ballots in the official box. When the collection of ballots is finished, the Credential Commission leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 52  Collected ballots: 52  Valid ballots: 52  Invalid ballots: 0  Absolute majority: 27 votes

The following candidate obtained absolute majority and is elected Member of the FIVB Board of Administration after the first round:

PRZEDPELSKI Miroslaw POL 28

Obtained votes:

HALANDA Lubor 20 EVERAERT Michel 19 MAVROMATIS Achilleas 15 CAN SCHÜRMANN Banu 13 THORSTEINSSON G.H. 11 FLEMING Margaret Ann 10 PEYTAVIN Annie 9 DE ARAUJO Vicente H. 7 MARTIN SANTOS Agustin 7 BERBEN Philip 4 URBANEK Robert 3

There are three more seats remaining in the FIVB Board of Administration for all European candidates, therefore it is necessary to carry out a second round of voting. Mr FISCHER calls on all the National Federations to deposit their ballots in the official box. When the collection of ballots is finished, the Credential Commission leaves the Congress hall to count the votes behind closed doors.

After deliberation, the Credential Commission returns and Mr FISCHER announces the following results:

 Distributed ballots: 50  Collected ballots: 50  Valid ballots: 50

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 Invalid ballots: 0

The following candidates are elected Members of the FIVB Board of Administration after the second round with simple majority:

MAVROMATIS Achilleas GRE 23 HALANDA Lubor SVK 21 EVERAERT Michel NED 13

Obtained votes:

CAN SCHÜRMANN Ban 12 THORSTEINSSON G.H. 10 FLEMING Margaret Ann 9 PEYTAVIN Annie 7 DE ARAUJO Vicente H. 6 MARTIN SANTOS Agustin 4 BERBEN Philip 3 URBANEK Robert 2

Mr FISCHER concludes the election of the European Representatives to the FIVB Board of Administration and notes that the newly elected CEV Board of Administration will decide on how to proceed with the remaining points in the agenda of the XXXVI CEV General Assembly.

23. Acknowledgement of the Appointment of Executive Committee Members & Ratification of Commission Presidents

Mr BORIČIĆ, the new CEV President, calls on the newly elected CEV Board of Administration Members to gather in an adjacent meeting room for deliberation. Upon return, Mr BORIČIĆ proposes the following nominations:

CEV Executive Committee Members

President Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ

Senior Vice-President Mr Renato ARENA

Vice-President & Treasurer Mr Özkan MUTLUGIL

Vice-President President in charge of Administrative Mr Lubor HALANDA Affairs

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Vice-President President in charge of Administrative Mr Maris PEKALIS Affairs

Vice-President Mr Stanislav SHEVCHENKO

Vice-President Mr Hanno PEVKUR

Vice-President Ms Banu CAN SCHÜRMANN

Vice-President Ms Margaret Ann FLEMING

CEV Commission Presidents

European Beach Volleyball Mr Michel EVERAERT Commission President

European Cups Commission Mr Roman STANISLAVOV President

European Financial Mr Özkan MUTUGIL Commission President

European Legal Commission Mr Alain FISCHBACHER President

European Medical Mr Manfred HOLZGRAEFE Commission President

European Refereeing Mr Luciano GASPARI Commission President

European Sports Organising Mr Wojciech CZAYKA Commission President

24. Awarding of Honorary Titles

No proposals.

25. XXXVII CEV General Assembly

Mr BORIČIĆ informs the General Assembly that the next year’s XXXVII CEV General Assembly will be held in Luxembourg as it does not coincide with any CEV European Volleyball Championships and there have been no applications received for hosting the event.

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26. Miscellaneous

There are no points raised under this section.

27. Closing Speech of the CEV President

Mr Aleksandar BORIČIĆ, the new CEV President, addresses the Congress participants saying it is an honour for him to be able to say a few words to them on this special occasion. He notes that he will be brief as it has been a long day for everybody but he would like to convey an important message.

On behalf of the newly elected CEV Board of Administration, Mr BORIČIĆ speaks about the plans to bring in new positive energy and spirit into the Volleyball Family of Europe and the commitment to working hard in order to unify all European Volleyball Federations. He mentions the fact that in the past there have been divisions among the National Federations and he would like to put an end to it by improving communication channels. He makes a plea to the National Federations of higher categories to help and support those of lower categories as well as the smaller countries of Europe. He stresses the need for more outside investment and for better ways of promoting Volleyball, for example by closer collaboration with the media.

Finally, Mr BORIČIĆ thanks the National Federation delegates for their time and energy and assures them that the new CEV Management will work hard to modernise the institution and open the door to more people from the outside of the European Volleyball Family. He also asserts the importance of the collaboration between the FIVB and the CEV, with the FIVB hopefully providing not only further support to the CEV activities of promoting Volleyball but also more respect und understanding.

28. Closing of the XXXVI CEV General Assembly

Mr BORIČIĆ thanks Dr Ary S. GRAÇA F° for his presence at the XXXVI CEV General Assembly. He then thanks the National Federations for the contribution and patience during the election process. Finally, he expresses his gratitude to the CEV staff for their hard work in the organisation and coordination of the event, as well as the interpreters for the efficient delivery of translation during all the various speeches.

Friday & Saturday 16 – 17 October 2015 GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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