Vienna, Austria. The Austrian Volleyball Federation (ÖVV) has initiated a future-oriented EU-funded project under the slogan “Good governance implementation in Volleyball – Go²Volleyball”. The other partners of the project include the Italian Volleyball League (Lega Pallavolo Serie A), the national Volleyball federations of Croatia (HOS-CVF) and Scotland (SVA), the Belgian law firm Cresta and the Institute for Sport Governance (ISG) from Poland.
“The idea of Go²Volleyball is to establish and standardise good governance in European Volleyball, to develop high standards for clubs, associations and institutions,” explains ÖVV President and CEV Board of Administration member Gernot Leitner. The project will lead to a certificate issued to the stakeholders as long as they meet a series of previously agreed good governance guidelines.
An innovative reward system should provide additional incentives. “This project,” Leitner continues, “will bring about a boost in modernising European Volleyball!”
This is one of only 121 projects approved by the European Union for funding through the Erasmus+ programme – out of more than 1,100 applications. The EU will co-fund the project with € 262,000. The start is due in January with a kick-off meeting in Vienna. The term is two and a half years.
“This project is trend-setting. Go²Volleyball will work for a concrete and effective implementation of the principles of good governance,” explains ÖVV Secretary General Philipp Seel. ÖVV Sports Director Gottfried Rath-Zobernig adds, “A key point will be to invite fans, players, clubs, officials and sports authorities to share their thoughts with us on a regular basis, because of course good governance is relevant for them as well and we want to get them on board!”
Good governance includes the development of guidelines to ensure transparency, accountability, but also efficiency and, of course, dealing with sexual abuse.
