70 national federations behind challenge to FIVB and Acosta

70 national volleyball federations support plans to reform the International Volleyball Federation and elect a new president, claims a newly formed committee to reflect on a new and more transparent international volleyball organisation. But reform seems elusive as the FIVB has just confirmed Ruben Acosta as the only candidate eligible to stand for election as president at the upcoming FIVB congress in Tokyo.

The reform plans are spearheaded by six well-known critics of the current FIVB regime including Mario Goijman, former president of the former Argentine Volleyball Federation, and Jean-Pierre Seppey, former secretary general of FIVB.

In a press release, the committee puts forward ideas for a more transparent, democratic and ethical FIVB and claims the proposal has the support of almost a third of the 218 national volleyball federations. However, to avoid that these federations are penalised or suspended for criticising FIVB president Acosta’s dispositions the federations will remain anonymous for the time being.

Only one candidate
The campaigners are worried about the absence of democracy, ethics and transparency within FIVB, and shocked that Dr. Ruben Acosta, the FIVB President, rejects any form of democratic opposition within his association.

Therefore they require democratic guarantees for the upcoming FIVB Congress in Tokyo and particularly that the organisation accepts new candidates for the presidency and the board of administration, and conducts elections through secret ballots. If this does not happen, the reform group will not exclude the possibility of founding a new international volleyball federation.

This step might have come closer this week when the FIVB Board rejected Jean-Pierre Seppey and Mario Goijman as candidates for the presidency and the Board of Administration respectively. The only candidate approved by the FIVB Board for the presidency was Ruben Acosta.

Reform people called marauding hyenas
The established regime in FIVB is working hard to maintain support for the Mexican president. Last week, the Asian Volleyball Federation’s website published an open letter to the World Volleyball Family from Italian professor, Bruno Manzella, who is also a member of FIVB’s Legal Commission.

Without naming any individuals, Bruno Manzella believes that the FIVB is witnessing “an ever more press campaign full of lies, calumnies and treason.” According to the professor, the campaign is headed by “people from the outside and even insiders who were greedily eating from our hand but now that they have been ousted, they have become marauding hyenas, trying to take possession of the FIVB.”

Calling Ruben Acosta the father of the present volleyball organisations, Bruno Manzello encourages all FIVB institutions, structures and organisms to wake and rise up like an united party “in the face of the cowardly attempt to demolish the honour and the reputation of the President and consequently of the Federation he has been leading for many years.