The International Federation de Volleyball (FIVB) on Monday presented to the media new balls which had been designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Together with our sponsor Mikasa, we've studied a new type of ball for our sport," FIVB President Ruben Acosta told reporters on Monday. "We will ask the teams to test the prototypes and report to us their feelings."

"Volleyball was the first sport to use a colored ball and other sports followed us. Now it is time for new visions, with a new design and a different technological process that could affect positively not only the appeal of volleyball, but also the ball control by players. Our plan is to use this new ball as a major change for the next Olympic Games in Beijing," he added.

Two different designs were showed to the press and will be presented to teams taking part in the World Cup to ask for their opinion. One is similar to the typical volleyball standard while the other one shows a more innovating look.

The FIVB was also considering limitation of foreign players on the court in club competitions.

"We will forward this proposal to our next board of administration in March, but I would like to stress that our first goal is to protect the young players' right to play," Acosta said.

"National identity is reinforced through sports, and the last decision by the European Community in Porto seems to go in our same direction. We don't want to stop the world's top players to play in the best Leagues, but we will propose to the board of administration to have in each team a maximum of three players affiliated to another National federation, and a maximum of two on the court. In this way, younger players will have more opportunities to play at top level in their own countries side by side with the best players from any country."

The FIVB president was expecting a great success of volleyball and beach volleyball in next summer's Beijing Olympics.

"I'm looking forward to the next Olympic Games in Beijing. In Athens we had more than 3.5 billion of TV viewers for volleyball and beach volleyball. I'd like to reach 4 billions next year," he said.

"We're also focused on London 2012. We managed to convince the organizing committee to have beach volleyball out of the Olympic park and bring it near Buckingham Palace, on the Royal Guards Parade. It will be a fantastic spot for beach volleyball."

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)