We are thrilled to report the successful outcome of the EFVL Congress 2023 meeting held in Albufeira, Portugal from 5-7 May. Thank you to all the participants who joined us in this important event. Special thanks go out to our amazing host Carlos Coimbra, FNFV and the city of Albufeira for the support and the amazing meeting Room Sala Azul on the beach.

During the congress, decisions were made to further develop the sport of footvolley and establish a more structured organisation. We are certain that these measures will help promote footvolley across Europe and beyond, and ensure its continued growth and success

At first we reported on the current situation of the EFVL and its member nations. Did you know that in 2022 more than 7500 people played footvolley in all of its modalities and on some occasions and that 1776 players participated in a national competition event? We also made an evaluation of our 4 European Tour events of last year in which 103 different players participated. We used these insights to make improvements to the current Tour 2023 which starts on 13-14 May.

To be of service to the member nations and their needs we will soon launch an EFVL Academy. It will have online seminars on topics like how to organise an event. In this academy we will also provide how to play tutorials for starters. We will move forward on licensing for referees, coaches and tournament delegates too. We’re actively looking for candidates and we will ask all ambassadors for support. This means you should start to look for talents in your country now.

A big leap forward is that we agreed for the season 2024 to start using an online EFVL software platform and app. This tool will be the answer to many of our challenges. It has professional management features for federations, tournaments, competition rankings, clubs and players.

For our own internal functioning in the Ambassadors and ExCo group we will move to a more userfriendly platform. Herewe will work on future projects and gather all information in 1 place.

To support these efforts, we discussed at length about budgets and ways of financing. And we voted to employ a Head of Administration halftime. In the short term we are also looking for a person helping out in the EFVL Office work.  The elections for both for President and Executive Committee members have been postponed to the next Congress.

TThis means that yours truly will remain as acting President until the next Congress at the end of this year. Vice-Presidents Carlos Coimbra and Erik Drenth (Head of FInance) also remain in the ExCo, together with Gal Hofu Levi, Sascha Kühne and Igor Oliveira. The current ExCo has also decided to add Cédric Schmutz to the Committee. So we currently have 7 members that manage our federation. But all will form separate working groups with experts and volunteers from all countries.

In conclusion, EFVL will focus its efforts on working together as a team to achieve our shared goals and objectives Once again, thank you to all who participated in this year's EFVL Congress, and we look forward to continuing our work together to promote the growth and development of footvolley.

Best regards,

Ulli Hulsmans