Support for the candidacy of Dr. Ari Graca
Dr. Saleh Bin Nasser, from Saudi Arabia; Dr. Amr Elwani, from Egypt; Mr. Cristóbal Marte Hoffiz, from Dominican Republic and Graça, Presidents of the Asian, African, Norceca and South American Confederations have taken the decision after a series of meetings that finished last Sunday at Lausanne, FIVB Headquarters.
These Continental Confederations gather 220 of the National Volleyball Federations of countries represented at the FIVB.
FIVB’s next Congress, to be held in September 2012 in the USA city of Anaheim, California, after the end of the London Olympic Games will chose its new President.
After the agreement, the continental leaders met with FIVB President, Mr. Jizhong Wei and advised him about their decision to support Mr. Graça, who has been the President of the South American Volleyball Confederation since 2003 and President of the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation since the year 1997.
The Presidents of this four Confederations praised the great work of this Brazilian Volleyball men, as the ideal person to lead the FIVB for the new period and engaged themselves to work together to ensure equity and equality of chances for all Continental Confederations when taking decisions at the FIVB, equal participation at the different working committees and over all, the equity participation of the teams of all the confederations at the world competitions organized by the FIVB, with the goal at the same time of guaranteeing the development of indoor and beach volleyball all over the world.
Graça, who is 68 years old, was born in Río de Janeiro in the year 1943, obtaining a Law Doctor title at the Catholic University in Río de Janeiro, where he started his professional career as a lawyer in the year 1966.
Graça is an experienced “old” former player of the Brazilian Men’s National team in the decades ’60 & 70 and received several recognitions due to his support of the Brazilian society, including the award “Yearly Executive” given by the Instituto Brasileño de Ejecutivos de Finanzas and the Military Sport Merit given by the Brazilian Army.
