Beijing, August 16 – Answers from Angelo Squeo (ITA), FIVB Technical Supervisor and Jose Casanova (POR), FIVB Technical Supervisor (Refereeing).

Angelo Squeo (ITA), FIVB Technical Supervisor

On organization of the test event:

“We congratulate China for holding such a good competition. Everything we have asked of BOCOG, they have done. They did it with good faith, good spirit. This is the way to face the Olympic Games. This is the first time we have had a full test event one year before the Olympic Games. In Atlanta, we didn’t have any test event. In Sydney, we only had one friendly match one week before the Games, and in Athens the venue was not ready. So this is a real test event. The venue is almost fully complete. I have to say the venue is the best I have ever seen in my life for beach volleyball.”

On possible improvements:

“We have worked with BOCOG, and in my point of view, there are three things we need to improve.
The first is that we need more English speaking people and English knowledge. During Games time, we don’t have much time to explain. We have many duties to fulfill for both BOCOG and international organizations. We suggest more English training for volunteers and key staff.
The second is that we need to relocate and optimize space in the venue. The room is there. We want to create separate areas for our players, officials, and the media. Now, it’s a little bit too mixed. We would like to create sections.
The third is that there are a lot of people in the event organization committee, good people. But we need to fix their precise responsibilities.”

Jose Casanova (POR), FIVB Technical Supervisor (Refereeing)

On referees in the test event and for the Olympics:

“A lot of work has been done by the China Volleyball Association (CVA) and BOCOG in training the officials for this level of competition. The FIVB has also been involved in training referees for the 2008 Olympic Games. CVA and BOCOG have established a training program for preparation and selection (of referees) for the Olympic Games. There have been three training sessions for these officials so far. The CVA has also sent several referees to international competitions. Also, we are running an international referee candidate course. For some referees, this test event is their first international experience. They are improving themselves from national level to international level. It’s our responsibility to set up the rules and regulations, and train our referees to decrease the level of disputes and improve the quality of our officials. A lot of work has been done in this area and great progress has been achieved.”