CEV History
The Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV) is the continental governing body for the sport of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in Europe. Its headquarters are located in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
Although the so-called European Sports Commission – a sort of forerunner of CEV - was set up only on October 21, 1963, in Bucharest (Romania) with Max Wasterlain of Belgium being elected President of this institution, Volleyball was already pretty popular in Europe at that time. 10 out of the 14 countries that attended the 1947 Congress which ultimately paved the way for the foundation of the FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) were actually stemming from Europe (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Yugoslavia).
The very first Men’s European Championship was staged in Rome in 1948 with the participation of 6 teams; Czechoslovakia claimed gold, while France and Italy finished second and third respectively. The premiere for the Women’s European Championship followed in 1949 in Prague with a total of 7 teams lining up for the competition that came to a close with the Soviet Union topping the charts ahead of Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Club competitions were also introduced before the official establishment of the European Sports Commission; the men competed for the first time in 1960 and the women only one year later. Both inaugural competitions eventually went to Soviet teams, namely CSKA MOSCOW and Dinamo MOSCOW respectively.
Only one year after Volleyball debuted at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the guys from the Soviet Union were crowned champions there, a decision was endorsed by the European Sports Commission to organize Junior European Championships every 2 years. The inaugural competition was held in Hungary in 1966 with the Soviet Union topping the standings in both genders.
Mr. Wasterlain stepped down from the Presidency of the European Sports Commission (ESC) in 1969 to be replaced by Mr. Vladimir Savvin (URS). The Administration Council of the ESC adopted in 1970 a provision that practically introduced the formula nowadays known as “final four” for the last and deciding stage of the European Cups.
The FIVB Congress staged in 1972 as the Olympic Games were being held in Munich decided that the five continental Sports Associations of Africa, Asia, Europe, NORCECA and South America were to be transformed into Continental Confederations.
The European Volleyball Confederation, or Confédération Européenne de Volleyball, was officially established on September 9, 1973 in The Hague during a special General Assembly of the ESC. Italy’s Giancarlo Giannozzi was elected its first President.
1975 was another key year for CEV as the General Assembly organized in Belgrade defined the composition of the Board of Administration, comprising 11 members, including 1 President and 4 Vice-Presidents. It was also decided that any Federation organizing the final round of the European Championships – at that time the men’s and women’s competition were still combined – did commit itself also to stage the CEV General Assembly slated for that same year.
In 1979,after Giannozzi passed away, Mr. Vahit Colakoglu of Turkey assumed the ad-interim Presidency of CEV before Georges Boudry was eventually sworn in at the Congress organized that same year in France. This role was taken over by Czechoslovak Dusan Prielozny in 1983 before Piet de Bruin (NED) assumed the Presidency in 1987. At that time a revised formula was introduced to govern the final phase of the European Championships, to rank all participating teams from 1 to 8. This format was applied for the first time at the competition played in Belgium where the Soviet Union and East Germany claimed gold in the men’s and women’s division respectively.
In 1989 the CEV headquarters moved from Brussels – where they had been located since the establishment of the European Sports Commission – to Luxembourg. For the first time in history the final rounds of the European Championships took place in different countries, i.e. Sweden (men) and West Germany (women). At the time where Italy’s golden generation started sweeping all major international events, the Board decided to create a working group – comprising 3 persons – in charge of studying the possible creation of a Beach Volleyball Commission.
With the break-up of the Soviet Union and of the former Yugoslavia, in 1992 the CEV family was joined by 11 new members: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
One year later, in 1993, upon the resignation of Mr. de Bruin, Michalis Mastrandreas of Greece was elected President after an extraordinary Board of Administration meeting held in Brno. As Beach Volleyball was finally included in the Olympic program and likely to make its debut in Atlanta, a European circuit was launched in Almeria (Spain).
Two years later - as Dr. Rolf Andresen (GER) took over the Presidency of CEV - the very first Youth European Championships were organized in Spain with the participation of 8 teams in both genders.
1996 was another memorable year for CEV as the official website www.cev.lu was created and Greenland joined the European Volleyball family, bringing the total up to 54 National Federations.
The most prestigious and competitive club competition worldwide, i.e. the Champions League, was established at the dawn of the third millennium, replacing the former Champions Cup. PARIS Volley (FRA) and Volley MODENA (ITA) claimed the very first crown in the men’s and women’s competition.
In 2001 Mr. André Meyer of Luxembourg was elected President. He was re-elected for the second term at the CEV General Assembly organised in Rome in 2005. That came as the final round of the Men’s European Championships was historically being organized in two different countries (Serbia & Montenegro and Italy), with finals played in Rome. Before the re-election of Mr. Meyer, CEV had already celebrated its 30th anniversary on March 21, 2003 in Milan.
After a referendum that called for independence from the State Union with Serbia, Montenegro joined CEV in 2006 to bring the total of affiliated National Federations up to 55 units.
The structure of the European Cups was additionally revised in 2007 with the cancellation of the Top Teams Cup; the CEV Cup was upgraded to second-best European club competition and the Challenge Cup was introduced to complete the CEV portfolio. In 2009 the final round of the CEV European Championship – Women was organized – for the first time ever – across four different venues in Poland (Lodz, Katowice, Wroclaw and Bydgoszcz) breaking all previous records in terms of spectators’ attendance and TV audience. That same year CEV took over from FIVB the task to organize Satellites and Challenger tournaments on the “Old Continent” for a further promotion of Beach Volleyball across all up and coming National Federations.
On October 17, 2015 Mr Aleksandar Boricic was sworn in as CEV President thereby opening a new era for the sport in Europe. Mr Boricic is the ninth President of the CEV since the Confederation was established back in 1973 and will be chairing Europe’s governing body for Volleyball up until 2019. Mr Boricic has a proven success record as President of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and has committed himself to modernising the sport as well as to improving the governance of Europe’s Volleyball family working closely with his colleagues from the Board of Administration who were elected on that same day in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In 2016 Kosovo joined the European Volleyball family becoming the 56th member National Federation. Also that same year the CEV launched its first ever Snow Volleyball European Tour, which was quickly followed by the inaugural Snow Volleyball European Championships in Wagrain-Kleinarl & Flachau, Austria in March 2018.
Information obtained from www.cev.eu
Posted in International on Apr 01, 2019
