A few years ago we heard the question: “When will footvolley be at the Olympic Games?” To clarify this doubt, World Footvolley embarked on a journey in 2016 aiming to uncover what has limited the administrative evolution of the sport.
A week after the end of the Olympic Games in Rio, a competition that brought together 22 countries presented itself with the aim of highlighting the international expansion of footvolley. In addition to the unprecedented clashes, it was also the first opportunity to debate the future of the sport with international representatives and identify the main challenges, which were often repeated regardless of the location; lack of time, resources, information and relationships.
With the proposal to solve this dilemma, Luiz Gomes, founder of WF, began to dedicate himself to analyzing the sports market, identifying requirements for a possible Olympic approval and generating value commercial to enable the construction of a sustainable enterprise. After 2 years invested in bringing the market and the sport closer together, meetings with promoters, athletes, agencies, broadcasters and executives in the segment, the need to create a commercial offer was identified. Thus was born the unprecedented World Footvolley League.
In its first season in 2019, the league brought together a total of 15 countries in four international stages, broadcast live by broadcasters in Brazil, Spain and Israel. In addition to visibility, footvolley gained, for the first time, a legitimate world ranking, which represented a fundamental step in the enterprise's proposal and appreciation of the sport's idols.
“From the beginning we have aimed to highlight the potential of footvolley as a product, form of entertainment and business opportunity”reinforces Luiz Gomes.
Adding to the proposal for international consolidation, the project also emphasized the importance of female representation by launching the “Queen of the Beach” contest. The format enabled Brazilian and international athletes to participate with different partners during the same competition. During the season, in addition to the Brazilians, representatives from the United States, Italy, Holland, Israel, Sweden and Hungary participated in the stages.
With the end of the inaugural season, it was time to identify how to move forward. That was when the entrepreneur and current partner, Flávio Stoliar, shared his interest in contributing to the construction of next steps. With the beginning of 2020 and the arrival of the pandemic, World Footvolley prioritized the formation of a multidisciplinary team to take its strategic plan forward.
The absence of the league in 2020 made time available for the launch of yet another innovative proposal in the sport, the WF Stars web series, which brings together episodes on its YouTube channel. Four episodes that report the teams' experiences during the inaugural season, relationships between athletes, tourist tours and behind-the-scenes of the competition. The series aims to create greater affinity between consumers and the main references of footvolley, showing aspects around the sport to attract new fans to the sport's lifestyle.
As next steps, World Footvolley will continue to focus on training idols and will place greater emphasis on the relationship with managers and practitioners, offering solutions for standardizing processes in footvolley.