First U18 international club competition to be played in Italy next September
The promotion of sport across the youth is an absolute priority also for the International Olympic Committee – with the very first Youth Olympic Games coming up in only a few days in Singapore – and the IOC recently established also a joint forum together with the United Nations to boost human development via the practice of sport. Within this general frame it is hence necessary to activate sport events that are closely associated to cultural and educational programs.
Starting from a recommendation descending also from FIVB President Jizhong Wei – who insisted in dedicating more attention to the clubs along with the national teams – an annual competition, named Euro Volley Cup 2010 Boys Under 18 Championship and addressed to the clubs having claimed their respective national leagues in the U18 division, has been recently conceived and established in Italy.
The competition will run through next September 16-19, 2010. The local organizer, i.e. the club Materdomini Volley based in Castellana Grotte which is currently focusing solely on youth Volleyball and ended the last U18 national league in third place, together with the Italian Volleyball Federation did set up a tournament that will feature a total of 12 teams, including two Italian clubs, i.e. Lube Banca Marche MACERATA and Materdomini itself. With the competition being conceived for the U18 age group, still every team will be allowed to line-up a maximum of two players born in 1991. Three venues have been identified (namely Castellana Grotte, Alberobello, Sammichele), all of them located in the southern region of Apulia, with the local institutions having already prepared an ad-hoc cultural and leisure program for the players and their coaching staff.