Football-volleyball hybrid hits RP beaches

Sand. A volleyball court. A soccer ball.

These are the elements of a new sport that combines the precision of volleyball with the skills of soccer. Footvolley was reportedly created by Octavio de Moraes in Rio de Janeiro in 1965 when, believe it or not, football was banned in Brazil. Police would routinely patrol public areas confiscating soccer balls, so de Moraes had his players use a volleyball court to circumvent the ban.

Originally, footvolley was played five a side. But since the players who pioneered the sport were the best players in Brazil, the ball would never drop and games took forever to finish. So gradually, the number of players per team diminished to two a side, the sport’s current form. The game, like all beach sports and all permutations of soccer, caught fire in Brazil. According to www.sportrio.org, “Some of the famous and well known Brazilian footballers who are associated with the Footvolley in Rio de Janeiro: Romário, Edmundo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Edinho.”

The game was more of an informal training exercise until the 1980’s, when it reached critical mass, leading to the standardization of the rules.

Now, it is played all over Europe (most notably in Israel, England and Italy) and has sprouted through many other countries. The first international footvolley event held outside of Brazil was organized by the United States Footvolley Association in 2003. The Federation International Footvolley (FIFV), the governing body of footvolley now aggressively pushes the sport by organizing international tournaments worldwide.

As in volleyball, 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. Matches are either one set to 18, or a best of three sets of 15 points for the first two sets, and the third set only to 11.

The Philippine Footvolley Association (PFA) was established in 2006, spearheaded by officers of the Beach Football Association of the Philippines. They believe that Filipinos can excel in this sport because Filipinos naturally enjoy fast-paced and high scoring games.

It took some time, but BFAP and PFA head Ahmed “Mike” Athab, laid down all the necessary linkages and accreditations for the association’s recognition abroad.

“Footvolley also takes advantage of the rally point system or new volleyball rules,” says Athab, who has been tirelessly promoting beach sports as well as traditional soccer in the Philippines for over 20 years. “And since it is played on sand, players can be daring and adventurous.”

The first footvolley exhibition games in the Philippines took place at a Landco’s event in Laiya, Batangas on May 22, with 10 school and club teams participating. Filipinos should have an easy time taking to the sport, since it is strikingly similar to sepak takraw, a traditional Malay sport played with three a side using a woven rattan ball.

The PFA will formally launch the sport of footvolley in a grand fashion from Oct. 15 to 17 through the first Philippine Footvolley International Tournament at the Fairways and Bluewater, which has two private beaches near its famous golf course. Teams from Spain, Singapore, Brazil and Thailand will fly over to play. Aside from the international event, the National Beach Football championships organized by BFAP will also take place.

“This is a great opportunity for our local football players to see and experience footvolley as a new sport, since it has a lot of similarities in terms of skill,” says Rea Celine Villa, secretary-general of PFA.

The next step for the PFA is to find regular sponsors to “brand” the sport.

Internationally, American soft drink brands already support footvolley tourneys in Latin America. Once the sport gets more schools involved, it will also attract television coverage, and become a mainstream sport here in the Philippines. Building an online community for players would also be a big boost, since their target market is the youth, anyway.

Incidentally, the BFAP is also using the event to organize a Guinness World Record attempt on the “Longest Beach Football” match, in the hope that two teams will be able to play a match non-stop for 24 hours.