Yokohama, Japan, July 11, 2008 - The annual FIVB World Grand Prix Council meeting was held in Yokohama, Japan, on Friday, at which FIVB First Executive Vice-President Jizhong Wei handed over the presidency of the Council to Japan Volleyball Association President Masao Tachiki. The Council also made the decision to allow Brazil to host a World Grand Prix Preliminary Round in 2009 for the first time.

Mr. Wei thanked all Council Members for their support after guiding the premier annual women's competition featuring the world's best players through more than 10 years of continuous improvement, before introducing Mr. Tachiki as the new Council President. Tachiki thanked Wei and asked all Council Members to support him in further developing the World Grand Prix.

Mr. Wei of China, who will become the new FIVB President after the Beijing Games, was particularly happy with the success of the 2008 edition of the World Grand Prix. The nine Preliminary Round organisers - represented at the Meeting with a total of 25 participants - excelled in their role, with each event running smoothly. Hong Kong achieved the most spectators attending an event, with 51,475 fans over three days, although the Final Round currently playing in Yokohama is attracting thousands of fans day after day.

There will be 12 participating teams in 2009 and the World Grand Prix is scheduled for a four-week period in July and August. The Preliminary Rounds are set for July 31 to August 16, including a stop in Brazil, and the Final Round from July 19-23 in Tokyo, Japan. The final schedule will be decided after the qualification of all teams by the beginning of October 2008. The European qualifier is in September and the Asian qualifier in October.

National Teams already qualified for next year are Brazil from CSV, USA, Dominican Republic and, for the first time in history, Puerto Rico from NORCECA, Poland from Europe and Japan and China from Asia. Three more places for Europe and two more for Asia are to be decided. Teams will be informed in future that they are obliged to participate with their best teams in order to maintain the high standard of the event. The Council is considering following the decision taken during the FIVB World League Council Meeting to eliminate countries with the lowest number of spectators at home matches.