Second term for Molaodi in CAVB
Former Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) President, Daniel Molaodi has been re-elected as the administration board member of the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB). CAVB held their elections this past Sunday in Morocco for the board members’ positions, and Molaodi retained the position for a second term in office after he came through in 2020.
Molaodi will be one of three (3) Africans to represent the continent in the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) board of administration subject to a ratification by FIVB later this year at the elective congress billed for Porto, Portugal.
Upon assuming his role in 2020, Molaodi emphasized the need to advocate for the development of the game in the continent, particularly the southern region. Quizzed by Sun Sport, Molaodi highlighted that his re-election is a sign of faith the delegates showed to continue with efforts to advance the game which was well demonstrated in the last term. “It means a gesture of trust by fellow volleyball leaders in Africa and they believe that I can advance their interests at the world body.
We were able to not only extend the lifespan of the FIVB empowerment program, but also succeeded in increasing the coaches support program period from three (3) months to 12 months and this benefits Africa more than any other continent since the majority of category 1 and 2 national federations are in Africa,” Molaodi shed some light concerning their previous achievements as the board. He added that African countries have also benefitted from the knowledge transfer programs through training of CAVB, zones and national federations staff, as part of a broad capacity building process in areas of coaches, referees, sport organizers, digitization of running and management of competitions.
Probed further on how Botswana would benefit from his position, Molaodi indicated that it would be in line with what all other African countries would benefit. However, he remarked that there are some developments which the local Volleyball governing mother-body have so far enjoyed, stating that they need to take advantage and know the direction of FIVB and strategically align Botswana’s plans. “Botswana's benefit is dependent on the BVF taking advantage of the empowerment programs available and they can detail how far it has or not benefited them. I am aware that they did have the beach coach project. I need to emphasize though that my placement is to represent, advocate and advance Africa's best interest, not only Botswana,” he said.
The former BVF president also conceded that there are problems facing the development of African game and said the CAVB leadership is working tirelessly to explore ways to improve the situation. “There are many [problems] but the immediate is to find ways to improve Africa's performance standards as we are still far behind, you might have observed from the last 3/4 Olympic Games. Africa's best teams are still far from an Olympic podium finish,” he shared.
Administratively, Molaodi noted that there is a deliberate program to advance the knowledge of referees in Africa to bring them to the same international standards with their peers in other regions, especially through exposing them to major continental and world competitions.
In conclusion, he urged Botswana and Africa to embrace the digitization of competition management, to improve the volleyball brand and make it attractive to broadcasting companies, as a starting point. He reiterated that to professionalize the African game, there is a need to enhance the quality of the games and competition which will attract private companies to come on board, which has proved to be an uphill battle for most federations in the continent.