The International Volleyball Federation -FIVB- held the annual meeting of its Development Commission to review a year of significant progress in 2025 and to define priorities for a 2026 focused on consolidating its growth model. The meeting also served to announce the agreement with Decathlon, presented as a strategic partner within a roadmap aligned with the FIVB Strategic Vision 2032.
Throughout 2025, the scale and reach of the FIVB’s development activity continued to expand significantly. Over the course of the year, 90 development courses were delivered through 54 organisers, engaging 2,969 participants and strengthening technical and structural capacity at all levels of the sport worldwide.
Olympic investment and the expansion of development programmes
The annual review was accompanied by a substantial increase in support from Olympic Solidarity for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle (2025–2028). Investment allocated to volleyball programmes reached USD 4,081,222, representing a 33 per cent increase compared to 2022. This funding is supporting a wide range of initiatives focused on coaches and athletes, including technical courses, Olympic scholarships for coaches, national sports system development programmes, team support grants and youth development projects.
Beyond structured programmes, the Commission highlighted the growing social and cultural impact of volleyball through legacy initiatives. Among them, the Volleyball Legacy Art Project stood out as a flagship example. Led by the FIVB and the FIVB Volleyball Foundation and launched in the Philippines alongside the Men’s World Championship—the first edition hosted in Southeast Asia—the project transformed an outdoor court into a mural featuring leading international volleyball figures, underlining the sport’s ability to connect competition, culture and community.
A new framework for national federations
In 2025, the FIVB began transforming how it supports National Federations through the introduction of a new categorisation system based on transparent and verifiable criteria. Following a globally inclusive pilot phase, the model identified achievements and areas for growth and will be rolled out to all 222 National Federations in 2026. In parallel, fan engagement remained a key focus, with 47,000 visitors attending Volleyball Experiences across the World Championships held in Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. Commission President Mushtaque Mohammed noted that “development is multilateral”, highlighting the importance of collaboration across the Global Volleyball Movement.
As part of its international expansion, the FIVB and Volleyball World also confirmed the launch of the FIVB Beach World Series, a new global series set to debut in November 2026, with Abu Dhabi named as the founding destination. The agreement, signed with the Dubai Sports Council, establishes a five-year partnership and a calendar of ten carefully selected international destinations designed to integrate elite sport, local culture and beach lifestyle into the competition format.
Decathlon and a new commercial dimension for the Volleyball Nations League
The meeting also provided the framework for the agreement with Decathlon, which from March 2026 will produce and distribute an exclusive merchandise collection for the Volleyball Nations League (VNL). The products will be available both in physical stores located in host cities and through Decathlon’s e-commerce platforms across host and participating countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Türkiye, Switzerland, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil, Canada and Japan.
The licensed range will include official fan merchandise such as volleyballs, apparel and accessories, complementing the official match ball supplied by Mikasa. The agreement also introduces new fan engagement experiences and digital touchpoints throughout the season, with a potential monthly reach of tens of millions of fans. According to Volleyball World CEO Ugo Valensi, the partnership represents “a milestone” as the first global, multi-channel retail collaboration of its kind, while Grégory Volpi, Volleyball Sport Leader at Decathlon, emphasised the shared ambition to expand access to the sport and strengthen volleyball’s global reach.
