Lausanne, Switzerland, October 19, 2009 -- The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) and the Italian Volleyball Federation are pleased to announce that the 2011 SWATCH-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be held in the Italian capital of Rome from June 17-26.

The eighth edition of the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, which features total prize money of US$1 million, will be held in the famed sports complex - the Foro Italico - next to the 1960 Olympic Stadium and will mark the third time that it has hosted a FIVB World Tour event, with an inaugural Open event held in 2009 and a Grand Slam proposed for May, 2010.

The 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Championships will feature 96 athletes (48 per gender), double the number of pairings at an Olympic Games, with men and women competing for $500,000 in prize money per gender in what is the largest stadium on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour where 10,000 fans will partake in the action, day and night.

Previous SWATCH FIVB World Championships included the very successful 2009 edition in Stavanger, Norway. Other editions were following:

2007 - Gstaad, Switzerland, 2005 - Berlin, Germany, 2003 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2001 - Klagenfurt, Austria, 1999 - Marseille, France, 1997 - Los Angeles, USA.

Prior to 1997, the World Championships were played yearly in Brazil from 1986.