Goa loses out on international tourney

PANAJI: Beach volleyball drew quite a crowd at the Lusofonia Games 2014 and understandably left Goa's sporting enthusiasts demanding more.
There was hope that major beach volleyball tournaments would follow but, at least for this year, those hopes have met with sudden death.
FIVB, the world governing body for volleyball and beach volleyball, has taken strong note of the payment issue that cropped up during the Lusofonia Games and has told the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) to keep Goa out of the shortlisted venues for the prestigious FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
"The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is allotted to India and, given the response and facilities, we wanted to host it in Goa. But the FIVB is clearly miffed with the organisation of the Lusofonia Games. They have asked us not to consider Goa," Ramavtar Singh Jakkar, secretary, VFI, told TOI on the sidelines of the Federation Cup volleyball in Kochi on Thursday.
The VFI has instead handpicked Chennai to host the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour -- which carries a prize money of Rs 1.70 crore -- later this year.
According to the FIVB calendar which has already been released, Fuzhou (China), Anapa (Russia), Xiamen (China) and Phuket (Thailand) will once again host Open tournaments with a further five organised in Puerto Vallarta (Mexico), Prague (Czech Republic), Parana (Argentina) and Doha (Qatar) with Durban in South Africa bringing the season to a close in December. Two more events in India (tentatively in November) and La Reunion (tentatively in December) have already been added to the calendar.
A monetary dispute between international technical officials (ITOs) and the Lusofonia Games organizing committee had almost derailed the beach volleyball tournament. At the heart of the confrontation was the payment to ITOs. While the six foreign delegates claim they need to be paid USD 225 per day (approx. Rs 14,000) and incidental expenses of USD 200 (aprox. Rs 12,400), LUGOC claimed they had documentary evidence to suggest a sum of USD 100 (approx. Rs 6,200) daily allowances and USD 100 for incidental expenses was earlier agreed upon.
"The international federation was quite upset because the (international) technical delegates who came in are quite senior and influential. Somehow, they were rubbed the wrong way," said Goa Volleyball Association president Irvin Soares.
"I was telling the organizers to go strictly by the FIVB rule book and not latch on to the slight error on part of VFI general secretary. We have lost a major event this year but there is certainly hope for the future," said Soares, who is also the chairman of Beach Volleyball Council of India.