Footvolley

Footvolley (Portuguese: Futevôlei) is a sport which combines aspects of beach volleyball and football (soccer).

History

Footvolley was created in Brazil, by Octavio de Moraes, in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach as a means for football players to be able to touch the ball without violating the formal football ban at the time. Players would bring a football; but opt for the volleyball courts when the police would come ask for their ball. The game of footvolley - first call 'pevoley' literally meaning "footvolley" was discarded for "futevolei". Footvolley started in Rio de Janeiro; however cities like Recife, Salvador, Brasilia, Goiania, Santos, and Florianopolis have players who have been playing footvolley since the 1970s.

Teams of footvolley had five a side initially. Due to the skill level of the then footvolley athletes (nearly all were professional football players); the ball would rarely drop. Thus, the players began lowering the number of players on each side, eventually settling on 2 versus 2, which is still in use today.

In recent years, professional football players have taken up footvolley in both promotional events and celebrity matches. Some notable Brazilian footballers who have played (or still play) footvolley are: Romário, Edmundo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Júnior, and Edinho (1982 & 1986 National Team).

Rules

Footvolley combines field rules that are based on those of beach volleyball with ball-touch rules taken from Association football. Essentially footvolley is beach volleyball except no hands and a football replaces the volleyball.

International Rules

Points are awarded if the ball hits the ground in the opponents' court, if the opponents commit a fault, or if they fail to return the ball. Scoring is done using the rally point system (NEW volleyball rules). Match scoring is usually up to the event organizer's discretion. Generally speaking matches are one set to 18 points; or best of three sets to 15 points (with third set to 11 points). The court is 29.5 feet x 59 ft (old beach volleyball). The height of the net varies based on the competition. The Official International Rule for the net height set is 2.2 meters or 7 feet 2 inches for the men's competition. For the women's competition, the height of the net should be set at 2 meters or 6 feet 6 inches.

Pro Footvolley Tour Rules

The rules in the United States professional tour (Pro Footvolley Tour) are designed to make the matches faster and more aggressive. Some of the notable differences are: lower net height (2.05 Meters); no 'net' foul; 2-pointers are awarded up to 3-times maximum per set for all shots scored with the foot when one foot goes above the head when striking the ball and the other foot is off the ground (bikes, matrix kicks, etc.); and smaller court size 57 feet by 28.5 feet.

International growth

Since the sport's inception in Brazil, footvolley has spread and gained popularity internationally, including Europe, the United States, and Asia. The very first international footvolley event held outside of Brazil was sponsored by the United States Footvolley Association in March 2003. This relatively small event is what kick-started the international grown of the sport.

Major events have been held at many beach cities in countries around the world, including Spain, Portugal, Greece, France, Holland, Aruba, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, Paraguay, etc.

Paraguay

Paraguay is the first world champion of futvolley and the paraguayan Jesus is the best player in the World Championship.

Brazil

In the history of footvolley, Brasilia (the capital of Brazil) has the number one players of today. This city has played a big role on bringing the best players in history. Since the 90's there have been great players like Gabriel, Xeleleu, Jansen de Oliveira, Ramiro, Betola, Edinho, Hugão, Luisinho, who are till today in activity and besides playing beautifully professionally; they also taught and raised on the field children that are today the biggest name of players in the history of Footvolley: Belo, Marcelinho, Mario, Cafe, Diego, Lana (on the female and mix footvolley) and others... Those won almost all of the worldwide Footvolley championships around the globe at this date.

United States

The Pro Footvolley Tour was launched in 2008. This new professional tour featured the best players in the US, and international guests at each event. The first Pro Footvolley Tour event was held in South Florida on Hollywood Beach in March, 2008. Brazilian football player Romario with his Rio de Janeiro based partner Joao Luis won the tournament beating a Deerfield Beach based squad of Paulo Ricardo and Alex Reis. This event drew 5,000 spectators, and was broadcast live on Univision. In 2011, the tour was held in Miami's South Beach.

The Pro Footvolley Tour has attracted sponsors such as Bud Light, TAM Airlines, and Crowne Plaza; as well as partners such as Comcast SportsNet and others.

National governing body

US Footvolley, based in Miami Beach, is the sport's national governing body (NGB.) It is chartered to grow the sport within the United States, sanction tournaments and equipment manufacturers; and represent the US in international competitions.

To be eligible for competition in official US Footvolley competitions, the player needs to meet certain requirements, including having been an active member of US Footvolley during the current year and a resident of the United States, although exceptions can be provided for celebrity layers because footvolley is still a relatively new sport and celebrities help attention to the sport. The US squad is determined by individual rank at the annual US Footvolley National Championships.

United Kingdom

In April 2006 the England Team accompanied football legends John Barnes and Niall Quinn to a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand organized by the Thai Footvolley Federation.

In 2007 the 2 events held were the Muller Rice Open in Croyde, and the Lamisil Once Footvolley Open in Brighton. Dirceu & Luigui were champions at both events, maintaining their unbeaten record and David & Gary, the England Footvolley Team No. 1 pair won the Shield Competition.

Israel

Footvolley was first played in Israel in 2003 when a few beach boys amongst which are, Yossi Golan, Amir Zohar, Oshri Cohen, Shalom Michaelshvili and more, learnt the exciting game from two Brazilian soccer players who played for Israeli teams. It was in 2007 that Corona in Israel got involved in footvolley, establishing the first footvolley ordinary league already in 2008. It was also the organizers of the league that invented the Hebrew name pronounced "Fuccivolley"(פוצ'יוולי) to be used exclusively for the game played in their league and other events.

Corona FootVolley League, so far the one and only ordinary footvolley league in the world, is played since 2008 every summer starting in May/June until the final four in September/October with 14 teams and 13 league rounds in the Premium league and 12 teams playing 10 rounds in the Masters league.

In 2009 Corona FootVolley European Tour was established inviting teams from Europe to play in Israel. In 2011 Corona FootVolley European Tour was upgraded to Corona FootVolley World Tour inviting teams from all over the world to play. For the very first time in its 4000 years of known history, FootVolley is about to be played in Jerusalem! The holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims, the city nested in the hurt of the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea will host the “Corona FootVolley World Cup – Jerusalem 2011” tournament. A beach sand playground (The Corona FootVolley Arena) will be prepared especially for the tournament right in front of the Old City walls, next to the famous Tower of David.

Corona FootVolley Winter Cup, a one day tournament, is also played in Israel every February since 2010.

External links

• World's Best Compete
• Pro Footvolley Tour
• Footvolley Canada
• Footvolley Pro Circuit Spain
• Swiss Footvolley Federation
• European Footvolley Federation
• Footvolley Amsterdam
• Footvolley Groningen
• Footvolley Belgium
• UK Footvolley Association
• German Footvolley Federation
• Footvolley Federation Portugal
• Yellowave Beach Sports
• Pepsi Footvolley
• Footvolley Croatia
• Israeli Footvolley Association
• Norwegian Footvolley Association