Kenya Volleyball Federation will have to make adjustments to their 2020 calendar of events following the change of dates for the Africa Women’s Club Championships.
KVF secretary general Ben Juma said the federation’s national executive committee has commenced consultation to determine how the changes instituted by the Confederation of African Volleyball will affect the local governing body's activities and make alterations where need be.
The federation had anticipated that the women’s competitions would be held in March as it has been traditionally. However, CAVB has rescheduled the competitions to between April 1 and 11 in Cairo, Egypt.
“We have already started consultations on the impact of the changes by CAVB and we will communicate any modifications in our calendar,” said Juma.
Kenya has the chance of sending a maximum of six teams — three women’s sides and an equal number for men to Cairo. The men’s bonanza is scheduled for April between April 12 and 22 in Cairo.
According to KVF calendar of events for 2020, there were no other volleyball activities in the country in March to pave way for the continental showpiece. Similarly, April was also set aside for Men’s Africa Club competitions.
Times must have been tough for African volleyball federations and clubs financially following the minimal to no show of interest in hosting the championships up until yesterday.
CAVB had to invite hosting rights bidding process three times to get a willing host. At the first instance, CAVB set a minimum of 50,000 USD (Sh5m) but no club or federation showed interest. This fee would also include exclusive live or delayed TV transmission and court advertisement.
With no country or clubs bidding at the lapse of the November 15, 2019 deadline, CAVB re-opened the process on December 1 for 15 days but there was no submission.
This forced the continental governing body to lower the starting bid amount to 40,000 USD (about Sh4m) and by February 2 deadline, only Al Ahly Sporting Club and Tunisia Volleyball Federation (TVF) showed interest.
TVF bid was 25,000 USD whereas Al Ahly SC put in 40,000 USD for each tournament (men and women’s) to win the hosting rights.
