MOSCOW: Russia has been named as hosts of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in 2022 for the first time ever, the All-Russian Volleyball Federation’s press service announced recently.
The host nation for the event was selected during the congress of FIVB, the international governing body for all forms of volleyball. The exact date of the future event, as well as host cities, will be chosen during the organization’s administrative council meeting due in mid-February 2019.
“The [FIVB] administrative council selected Russia by a majority of votes. Just recently, FIVB President Ary Graca announced the decision, and Russia was granted the right to host the world championships. The decision on [host] cities will be made in February. Ten cities have lodged their bids, nearly all of them are already capable of hosting the world championship, they have good infrastructure for that,” All-Russian Volleyball Federation President Stanislav Shevchenko was quoted as saying to the government news agency, TASS.
This will be third event of high magnitude that Russia will be hosting, having previous experience of doing so in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
“This event is a tribute to all our fans, athletes, sports veterans and the country’s leadership, and to all people who care about this sport. Our country has a great number of volleyball fans, they deserve an opportunity to see volleyball starts from all over the world taking part in a tournament on their country’s territory,” Shevchenko added.
Commenting on the FIVB decision, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov believes that he had no doubt about the success of the bid.
“I was sure that FIVB approve Russia’s bid,” Kolobkov said.
“Volleyball is very popular in our country, and stadiums are full when top-level domestic clubs are playing.”
FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championships are held every four years starting from 1949. Although Russia has never hosted the tournament so far, the Soviet Union did so twice: in 1952 and 1962.
