Serbian elected President of European Volleyball Confederation

Serbia's Aleksandar Boricic has been elected President of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) to replace Luxembourg's André Meyer at a vote held during the body's General Assembly in Sofia today.

Boricic, who will serve a four-year term until 2019, is also President of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia, and previously led the Yugoslav Volleyball Federation and the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro.

He was formerly a leading player, amassing 103 caps with the Yugoslav national team in a career which peaked with bronze at his home European Championships in 1975.

He was elected unopposed to become the ninth President of Europe’s governing body since the CEV was established in 1973, having served the last-four years as senior vice-president.

A graduate of the College of Economic Sciences and the Advanced School of Volleyball Coaches from the University of Belgrade, Boricic joined the CEV Executive Committee and Board of Administration in 2001 and has been an FIVB Board of Administration member since 2002.

A former vice-president of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee from 1997 until 2001, he is also an International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) executive vice-president in charge of the FIVB World League and World Grand Prix Councils, as well as the current President of the FIVB Sports Events Council.

Aleksandar Boricic posing with the new CEV Board following the election in Sofia ©CEV

Forging closer reputations with the FIVB and speaking with a united voice for the entire continent are his key aims, he revealed following his election.

“On behalf of all elected Board members, I state that we are committed to work hard for volleyball, and that we want to bring a new spirit and energy," he said.

"We also want to bring together all Member Federations into one common European Volleyball family.

"I invite you all to send in your remarks, comments and ideas in order to establish a good and efficient communication flow among us as we begin a new journey.

"We need to work hard in order to obtain sponsors and commercial partners, and to better promote volleyball, while liaising closer with the media and involving a lot more people in our sports.

"It is our ambition and goal to be able to report in two years’ time to the members of our family that our energy and drive has delivered something unprecedented to volleyball in Europe.

"Together we must forge closer links with the FIVB and request that they acknowledge our status and role in world volleyball and beach volleyball.”

Sixteen members of the CEV Board of Administration have also been confirmed, including Denmark's Eric Adler, Italy's Renato Arena, Croatia's Zdeslav Barac, Liechtenstein's Banu Can-Schürmann, The Netherlands' Michel Everaert, Scotland's Margaret Ann Fleming, Slovakia's Lubor Halanda, Austria's Peter Kleinmann and Bulgaria's Dancho Lazarov.

Completing the group is Achilleas Mavromatis of Greece, Özkan Mutlugil of Turkey, Pawel Papke of Poland, Maris Pekalis of Latvia, Hanno Pevkur of Estonia, Stanislav Shevchenko of Russia and Gudmundur Helgi Thorsteinsson of Iceland.