Acosta Retires from FIVB Presidency

FIVB presidnet Ruben Acosta announces his retirement before his term is over. (Getty Images)(ATR) Ruben Acosta says he will step down as president of the International Volleyball Federation at the federation congress in Dubai next month.

Acosta, 74, is the longest-serving president of an Olympic sport federation, taking office in 1984. He has two years remaining in his current four-year term.

"I intend to leave my position at a time when our Federation is stronger than ever to devote from now on all my time to my family and to my private affairs", is how an FIVB press release quotes Acosta's comments to the federation board which met Monday in Lausanne.

The FIVB release notes that the members "did not fail to show their surprise". Beach volleyball joined the Olympic schedule in 1996 under Ruben Acosta's tenure. (Getty Images)

Acosta's resignation came on the same day that he presided over the opening of the new headquarters for the federation on the shore of Lake Geneva in Lausanne.

Under Acosta's tenure the FIVB has grown into one of the largest sports federations with 218 members. FIVB events around the world provide sponsorship income as do tv rights packages for professional matches. Beach volleyball has also been a spark for the federation since being added to the Olympics in 1996.

At the same time, Acosta has encountered controversies, mostly around money. While helping to enrich the federation by finding sponsors and selling broadcast rights, Acosta also collected a 10 percent commission on the revenue, a practice still unique to FIVB among the Olympic sports federations.

When disclosed about five years ago, the arrangement attracted the scrutiny of the IOC Ethics Commission, which suggested in its findings that money being raised for sport should be applied to sport.

Acosta, who was an IOC member at the time, resigned in 2004 before the ethics report was released. He cited his age, 70, the retirement age for some IOC members, as the reason for leaving the IOC.

Acosta has waged battles within FIVB that have spilled into the SwissWei Jizhong will be the new FIVB president when Ruben Acosta steps down. (ATR) courts, but has managed to keep his leadership intact.

Under the rules of the federation, he will be succeeded for the remainder of the term by Wei Jizhong, the Chinese sports leader who is first executive vice-president.

Moving up to Wei's position will be Cristobal Marte Hoffiz of Dominican Republic.

The FIVB release says that Acosta had told the board that he would reconsider his decision in the coming month, "but did not conceal the fact that he had spent a long time thinking about his decision before making his intention known and that it was very unlikely that he would change his mind between now and the middle of June."

The release says that the board was going to ask Acosta to stand for another four-year term at their meeting in Dubai in June.

Written by Ed Hula

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