Participation set to spike as CEV leap into action for #1DayMore4Volleyball

The European Volleyball Confederation (CEV), the European governing body for volleyball, is once more attempting to capitalise on the leap year by organising mass participation events on Saturday, 29 February. It is designed to increase participation in volleyball by inspiring more people to take up the sport, whilst also raising its profile by creating as much exposure and visibility as possible.

Organisers hope this spike in activity will have the same impact and more from the first campaign at the last leap year back in 2016. Four years ago more than 49,000 people participated in #1DayMore4Volleyball playing as many as 4,500 matches across 551 cities all over Europe in 901 different venues. The action involved 28 CEV member federations – Poland and Serbia recorded the highest number of participants with15,000 and 12,000 respectively – with exhibition matches played up to the symbolic mark of 29 points.

The cross-section of ages saw involvement from schools, professional and amateur players, including the national men’s sitting volleyball teams of Italy and Poland. The staff working at the CEV headquarters in Luxembourg also joined in with the spirit of #1DayMore4Volleyball by playing one volleyball and one sitting volleyball match against their colleagues of the Luxembourg Volleyball Federation and other members of the Grand Duchy’s volleyball family.

The 2020 renewal will be taking the original concept to the next level, with participation levels set to exceed those of four years ago. To date over 140,000 participants have already registered to take part in over 10,000 games scheduled at nearly 2200 venues. These numbers are being added daily and are updated in real time on the dedicated event website https://1daymore4volleyball.cev.eu/

Saturday 29 February will all be about ‘one day for Volleyball’ and a chance for the sport to take centre stage and to inspire more people – especially the younger generation – to play and get involved with the game and also live a healthy lifestyle. With #1DayMore4Volleyball now a viral theme on social media, the action has also been buoyed by the help of star players from all three disciplines of the sport – volleyball, beach volleyball and snow volleyball.

Many of top volleyball athletes as well as amateurs are participating in a unique and entertaining #VolleySkillChallenge on their Instagram feeds. The challenge emphasises one of the sport’s unique features in that people can play the ball by using their entire body, from your feet to the knees all the way up to the final hit. Famous players such as Poland’s Joanna Wołosz, Italy’s Paola Egonou, Serbia’s Uroš Kovačević and Russian beach volleyball player Viacheslav Krasilnikov are just a few of the names that have already got behind the campaign by participating into a challenge and posting it onto their social media channels.