FIVB President Ary S. Graça F° presents a plaque for H.E. Mohammed Saleh Al Saada to Mr Khalid Ali Al-Mawlawi
“When you look around here, you only see development and construction everywhere,” Dr. Graça F° said. “Now I can have one idea of how paradise may look like. You are investing all your resources to develop your country and the people.”
“Our new philosophy at the FIVB is that money that come from a specific sport should go back to the sport,” he added. “Our goal is to make volleyball and beach volleyball bigger sport disciplines around the world.”
Dr Graça F° proposed to convert Doha in some way into a capital for volleyball for the region and offered the assistance of the FIVB Technical Department to help in that purpose.
“We can disseminate volleyball and beach volleyball not only to all the Arabic countries but to the whole region,” he said. “I think that with our joint effort we can do it.”
Mr Khalid Ali Al-Mawlawi, Chairman of the FIVB Club World Championships Organizing Committee, welcomed the FIVB executives and all the members of the Control Committee for the annual tournament which is being held in Doha for the fourth successive year.
“Our love and passion for volleyball got us together here,” he said. “Doha is the capital of sport and I want to express to all of you our feelings and how proud we are for hosting the FIVB Club World Championships for the past four years.”
He expressed his desire and willingness to host a Beach Volleyball World Tour event as ´part of the mission to expand the popularity of the sport.
“We are not going to limit ourselves to grass root development,” Mr Al-Mawlawi said. “Our hands will be always open for you, to offer our support, understanding and cooperating. We want to be the right hand of the FIVB in the region.”
At the conclusion of the lunch at the luxurious Burj Alhamam, The Pearl-Qatar, the FIVB President presented Mr Al-Mawlawi a plaque for H.E. Dr Mohammed Saleh Al Saada, the Minister of Power and Oil of Qatar, who has been an influential supporter for the development of volleyball in the country.
Dr Graça F° was accompanied to the lunch by Mr Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, FIVB First Executive Vice President, Dr Amr Elwany, FIVB Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Mr Theofanis Tsiokris, Honorary Vice President of the FIVB, and Mr Aleksandar Boricic, Executive Vice President.
Read more volleyball news from all around the world here
