New FIVB President, Secretary General Outline Future Plans

The International Volleyball Federation elected Fabio Azevedo as its new president at the 39th FIVB World Congress in Porto with American Hugh McCutcheon named as secretary general.

McCutcheon has served as a senior advisor to the FIVB for several years. McCutcheon led the USA men’s national volleyball team to gold at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, then guided the USA women’s national team to a silver medal at London 2012.

“I’m extremely excited to be a part of this,” McCutcheon said on Tuesday during an online meeting with world media. “Having been involved in the sport in all these different aspects and now part of the leadership at this time feels like an extremely exciting opportunity. We’re getting to work.”

The growing momentum around women’s volleyball in the United States has been noticable between last year when 92,003 people packed Memorial Stadium to watch Nebraska volleyball sweep in-state rival Omaha and more than 30 Division I schools reported setting attendance records at volleyball matches during regular season play. There are two professional leagues in operation — Athletes Unlimited started in 2021 and the Pro Volleyball Federation’s inaugural season ended in May — with League One Volleyball, commonly referred to as LOVB, scheduled to start in January 2025.

USA Volleyball also has new leadership with John Speraw, who had been the head coach of the U.S. men’s national volleyball team since 2013, taking over as president and chief executive officer of the national governing body.

“Part of my decision to get involved was the idea of a strategic intent relative to the U.S. market,” McCutcheon said Tuesday. “There is significant growth at the grassroots level in the U.S., there is significant growth in the collegiate level media-wise and we have three pro leagues. There are all kinds of benefits and synergies that we thought could be harnessed with having someone with deep knowledge of the U.S. market. I was a big part of USA volleyball for a long time and have strong relationships with them.”

Azevedo has worked in volleyball for over three decades, including as chief executive officer of the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation. He will lead the FIVB for the next eight years, succeeding Ary Graca. His platform was a full strategic vision he entitled ‘Together as One’ with pillars of professionalism, integration, empowerment and mass participation.

Azevedo pledged to lead volleyball into its next phase by elevating the sport’s professional standards, expanding its reach worldwide and aiming to double the current 800-million-strong global fanbase. He also on Tuesday mentioned beach volleyball’s success at the Olympic Summer Games in Paris being at the foot of the Eiffel Tower as a platform to increase participation in that discipline; Azevado said as part of the FIVB’s work on sustainability, the sand used at the venue has been distributed across Paris and other volleyball clubs.

Azevado also discussed having more regional competitions set up for countries that do not get enough competition. He used the one zone of the Asian confederation that has 14 countries that are not playing annual FIVB competitions and need more regional action.

“Every single country will see clearly the pathway on how to get (world ranking points) by creating more opportunities and investing more in their countries to make their national teams better,” Azevado said. “There is no way for the business to grow unless the sport grows together.”

Azevado also said the FIVB are in regular contact with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Indoor volleyball and beach volleyball do not have officially confirmed venues for the Games; indoor volleyball has been proposed to be at the Honda Center in Anaheim with beach volleyball in Santa Monica.

“It’s quite normal having these discussions four years in advance,” he said. “We are very confident that we’re soon going to announce the venues for both beach volleyball and volleyball and they will be spectacular as they were in Paris.”