A key part of the FIVB's strategic plan is to join aquatics, athletics and gymnastics as a tier-one Olympic sport, earning greater funding from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Azevedo claimed here at the Beach Volleyball World Championships that a data report from the IOC, which showed how the sport had the highest accumulated number of viewing hours of all of the disciplines at Rio 2016 Olympics, had strengthened their case.

According to the report, volleyball and beach volleyball had a combined total of 2,634,677,000 viewing hours at the Games.

Azevedo also said the organisation were beginning to meet the IOC's requirements for tier one status.

This includes setting up an Athletes' Commission, which the FIVB did last year.

It is led by Brazilian legend Giba, part of the team which won the gold medal at Athens 2004.

"After the results in Rio and having Tokyo 2020 ahead of us, I think it is a matter of time until we are there," Azevedo said.

"The IOC has around 74 points that they use to evaluate the sports.

"We are checking the points and we are improving the organisation based on them."

Azevedo is not sure if they have done quite enough yet, however.

"Unfortunately we did not have an Athletes' Commission, simple things like this are among the 74 points, but we have implemented that last year," he said. 

"We are not sure if we will be moved from tier two to tier one but definitely we will be much better because of the job we are doing.

"The aim is to increase the relevance of volleyball in worldwide society.

"It will be after Tokyo as the evaluation is after the Games - the results will consider London [2012], Rio and Tokyo.

"If it does not happen, we will keep going. 

"We will not give up."

The 2024 Olympics are set to be held in Paris following confirmation last week that Los Angeles would host the 2028 edition.

Both cities are due to be officially confirmed as hosts at the IOC Session in Lima on September 13.