FIVB Strikes Again

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser forfeited one of their matches at the FIVB's World Championships last week due in part to Todd's back pain, but also to protest the FIVB's decision about bonus pool money, which is half the money the players receive from FIVB events.

According to Todd's blog, the FIVB has dealt the U.S. players a serious blow and he wants people to know it.

Rogers says the FIVB agreed late last year to distribute 70% of a player's total bonus pool money if the player attended four international events. They could earn the rest if they attended more tournaments.

But after Beijing, the handover of power from FIVB President Ruben Acosta to Jizhong Wei after Beijing led to more changes in leadership. Ari Graca, the President of the South American Volleyball Confederation and the Brazilian Volleyball Federation became FIVB Vice President.

Rogers says that in March, Graca arbitrarily decided that players would have to attend several more FIVB tournaments to receive just half of the pool money. Makes sense from the FIVB standpoint of getting more players to attend FIVB events. But according to Rogers, the new rules hurt only the American players.

Does he have a point? Definitely. Brazil and the U.S. have the strongest domestic tours and it is no coincidence that the two countries dominate the medals at every Olympics. Conveniently, Brazil's tour takes place in a different part of the year so it is not in conflict with the FIVB season. But the American players will have to miss several AVP events to comply with the new rules which would hurt the league significantly.

Though there has never been any love lost between the FIVB and AVP, it seemed the players and national bodies had finally come to some sort of agreement. It would be a shame to take relations back to square one.