(ATR) The president of the International Volleyball Federation, FIVB, tells Around the Rings he hopes his quest for "more responsibility and less power" marks his time as president.
Jizhong Wei said his goal is to "set up a democratic system and mechanism in order to limit the absolute power of the president".
"I hope to set up a scientific, democratic system in the governance of FIVB.
"How to guide a democracy is to set up regulations and procedures. If we want to make any decisions, we should first put the democracy before, not after. In the past [former FIVB president Reuben] Acosta -- he made his decisions, then asked the general assembly or congress to approve it. I can not say this is not democratic, but is democratic afterwards.
"For me before I make any decision I listen to people and summarize, I know what is the majority’s willingness, and then I follow the majority.
"If you have the responsibility, the national federations will give you the power to implement your responsibility. Not from the other way. Now I have full power and then less responsibility, all things are decided by me. This is perhaps a different philosophy as Dr. Acosta."
Acosta was dogged by criticisms of his leadership style. Critics said he ruled the federation with an iron fist and allegations of improper handling of FIVB funds were levied against him as well.
One of the key changes Wei introduced and had approved was the election of the continental federation board members by the continental associations instead of the congress as a whole.
"Before if we elect all the board members by Congress, it would be manipulation because the other federations don’t know the candidates of other federations, they will listen to the president. If the president didn’t like him, he is no good. I think this is logical and to avoid any kind of manipulation."
Additionally, the continental leaders are now guaranteed a spot on the FIVB executive committee.
"All of these changes are a necessity. There is a common demand of all the federations. I just do something to reflect the need of the national federations. I didn’t take any initiative by myself. I am working to meet and try to satisfy all the national federations."
When asked about the success of the congress that concluded in Rome on Sept. 10, Wei continued to defer to the needs of the national federations.
"According to the reaction of all the delegates, nearly 100% theyare happy. They say this is the first time they had freedom of expression. The success of the Congress will not be judged by me, or the board members, but all the participants."
Wei claims he has already several emails and letters of congratulations.
"That means the delegates are happy. My duty is to serve the federations."
Wei says his next task for the federation is to help develop the "underdeveloped" volleyball countries.
"They need help," he said.
However, first "they should take initiative. They should start to develop volleyball, then we help them. They can’t rely only on financial resources to develop volleyball in their country. First you should start, then FIVB will help."
Wei says that every year, 80% of FIVB’s net income is redistributed to the national federationsfor sport development.
To help further promote the sport , Wei says FIVB can increase funding to the continental associations, and national federations can apply for grants for specific programs within national federations—with FIVB supervision.
The next challenge for FIVB, according to Wei, is "to have a real FIVB culture.
"If we don’t have a certain culture, every nation will think about money, how can we get it from FIVB. This is not our goal. Our goal is we have to develop volleyball together, so we should study and establish a certain culture. Culture means responsibility.
"As we will spend more and more money on the development, we should set up a mechanism to follow up and control. This is for the general benefit of FIVB. All the money belongs to all the national federations. I consider the FIVB fortune a public fund. Public funds should be used for the public interest, not for special groups."
Wei struck a cautious tone in discussing volleyball for the London Games.
"I’m sorry to say that until now we got very small achievement," he said laughing.
"The reason is volleyball is not very popular in Great Britain. So perhaps the government and the organizing committee to those sports which they can get medals. For volleyball they have no chance of getting medals, so this is not in the agenda. So we will push them and if necessary help them organize a good volleyball tournament.
"They chose a very good place for beach volleyball. I think beach volleyball will be more popular than volleyball in London."
Written by Ed Hula III.
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