The host's historic victory over Brazil in last night's final proved to be the icing on the cake of an already hugely popular Championship.

The win, a first in 40 years for Poland and the first time since 1966 that a host nation has picked up the world crown, came as part of the most successful Volleyball World Championship to date.

More than 550,000 tickets were sold across the three-week tournament, a record for the FIVB, with 103 matches involving 24 teams taking place in seven Polish cities across the duration.

Television rights for the Championship were distributed to 118 markets and a further 92 took advantage of web-based pay-per-view broadcast.

Graça claimed the sport was now in great shape heading into Rio 2016, with the Brazilian's love for volleyball set to make it one of the popular sports at the Games.

"This has been an iconic and historic tournament for world volleyball," he said. 

"The Polish fans were as much the stars of the show as the athletes and together they showed that sport can also be world class entertainment."

Brazil rank among the most successful countries in the history of Olympic volleyball with the men having won the gold medal at Barcelona 1992 and Athens 2004, while the women lifted the title at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and will be going for a hat-trick of victories at Rio 2016. 

"Volleyball is now in great shape going into Rio 2016; I believe that volleyball could be the biggest sport at the 2016 Games because it is in Brazilians' blood," said Graça.

"This passion will be seen in the Maracanãzinho Arena and of course at Copacabana beach, which is a truly iconic location for beach volleyball."

The Volleyball World Championship in Poland was the most successful to date for the FIVB with more than 550,000 tickets sold across the three-weeks ©Getty Images


Graça added: "Ahead of Rio 2016, the FIVB will be continuing our drive to innovate the sport.

"Having successfully introduced the challenge system with state-of-the-art technology, we are now experimenting with LED nets which will allow commercial and entertainment messaging, as well as social media interaction with fans between play.

"There are a number of other exciting initiatives that we will be announcing in the next few months but for now I would just like to thank our Polish hosts for a truly memorable tournament."

Before Rio, the FIVB is set to travel to Italy as the Women's World Championship gets underway across six cities - Rome, Milan, Trieste, Verona, Modena and Bari - tomorrow.

This tournament will see 24 teams battle for the honour of calling themselves the world's best, and is due to run until October 12, where the final will take place inside Milan's Mediolanum Forum.

Russia come into the tournament as two-time defending champions, having beaten Brazil in the last two finals.

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