Lausanne, 17 July 2006 – As the first weekend’s play saw packed sports halls across the world, the outlook for TV coverage of the 2006 FIVB World League was equally promising. “The latest figures show that this year’s line-up of Host TV broadcasters and TV rightsholders is the best ever, with full match coverage available to well over 2 billion people worldwide”, said FIVB President Rubén Acosta. For the second weekend of action from 21-23 July, spectator attendance and TV interest is sure to increase with the home matches of the world’s volleyball powerhouse Brazil in Belo Horizonte.

The 16 Host TV Broadcasters for each country involved in the World League are broadcasting on 28 different TV channels and together reach a potential live audience of 622 million television households. The additional FIVB TV rightsholders have transcontinental networks that reach a further 200 million households with their full match coverage of the World League. This brings the total potential viewership for full match coverage to 822 million households, which equates to well in excess of 2 billion viewers. Furthermore, the six “Matches of the Week” offered free of charge by the FIVB to international broadcasters will also be broadcast in over 130 countries worldwide by 20 major international networks, including Eurosport, Al Jazeera Sport and ESPN to over 350 million households.

On weekend 2, the China v Russia match will be broadcast live domestically by Sichuan Sports Channel, Shanghai Sports Channel, Guangdong Sports Channel, Beijing Sports Channel and Fujian Sports Channel in China, whereas CCTV-5, the world's biggest TV station, schedules each Chinese home match semi-live at 22:05 prime-time. Internationally, the China v Russia matches will be broadcast live by free TV Al-Jazeera Sport Channel, All-Russian TV Channel Sport and Supersport Greece; all in all the China v Russia matches will be broadcast by 9 TV channels with a technical reach of 515 million TV households worldwide.

After overthrowing world number three Serbia & Montenegro in their first home match last weekend, Japan will be hoping to gain more points as they face the world number five USA, though the Americans beat them 3-1 in their last encounter on their own soil at the Grand Champions Cup in Nagano last November. Poland, on the other hand, will no longer have the luxury of the week’s acclimatization they had in the United States as the unchanged team travelled to Belgrade on Wednesday to face Serbia & Montenegro. At their Wednesday press conference, the Serbia and Montenegro delegation celebrated their tenth participation in the World League (and their last as Serbia & Montenegro following the separation of the two states) and were proud to have two record-breaking players present. Goran Vujevic has played in each of Serbia and Montenegro’s 125 games in the World League and Ivan Miljkovic is the only player with four World League Final Tournament MVP titles. Head coach Travica’s players will play Poland on Friday in new World League venue Vrsac and on Saturday in Belgrade. The “Blue Boys” lost to Japan over the 1st weekend, which was their first loss to that team after eight consecutive victories with only 5 sets lost. "We should be realistic and say that we are satisfied with a victory in Japan, because we were significantly weakened and our form is not yet on the desired level. With Ivan Miljkovic’s return the situation is changing, and we will also have the home court advantage with our crowd at the stands,” said Travica.

Poland’s head coach Raul Lozano claims that his top priority is the World Championships and that “the World League is only an experimental training ground in setting up the best line-up.” However, the strong line-up he fielded against the USA would suggest that he is nevertheless serious about securing a ticket to the Moscow finals. The two sides have had 11 head-to-head encounters in the World League, with the Balkan team having the edge with seven victories. But while Serbia and Montenegro have won all of their Final Round meetings with the Poles, the teams stand all-square at 4 each in the Intercontinental Round, so the weekend’s matches are sure to be hotly contested affairs.

In Pool B, Brazil will host Argentina at home for a rematch of last weekend’s pairing. Despite their double victory over Argentina, Brazil were training hard again only two days later under head coach Bernardo Rezende, who is far from complacent with the results. For him, playing in Brazil could even be more difficult than last week’s away match in San Juan. “Every match has its history. The Argentines will be playing without any pressure and knowing our team better. And we are going to face the natural pressure of playing in our country,” says Bernardinho. The team’s new setter may help to reassure the coach. The 20 year-old player joining the team in Belo Horizonte was elected best setter in the last Superliga and is none other than Bruno Rezende, Bernardinho’s son. Finland, the surprise contender of last weekend, is currently tied on points with Brazil at the top of the pool, but Portugal will be looking to avenge the two 3-0 losses in its first home matches of the tournament in Matosinhos. Portugal’s head coach Francisco dos Santos was keeping his tactics close to his chest at Wednesday’s press conference. “We hope to play in a different way and therefore achieve a different result. Our idea is to develop the players’ skills individually and start obtaining results.”

France will travel to Verona to face world number two Italy buoyed by its away victory over Russia (world number four) in its first match in Pool C. After two convincing victories over China, Italy’s head coach Giampaolo Montali is looking forward to the matches against France: “We played very well in blocking [against China]. Tencati was almost perfect in attacking. The match against France will be a crucial stage on the road to Moscow. They won against Russia and we have to improve a little in our serving skills.” China will welcome its second guests as Russia travels to Chengdu for a match that can be seen by over half a billion TV households.

Korea will be looking to secure its first win as the team hosts Pool D leader Bulgaria in Jeonju. Currently bottom of Pool D, Egypt has yet to win a set – a record the team may still find hard to break playing away against a strong Cuban side in Havana. The African side’s preparations were not made any easier due to a flight delay that means they will not arrive in the Cuban capital until Thursday afternoon, with their first match scheduled for Friday at 20.40 local time. The Egyptian team will start training two hours after arrival at the Ciudad Deportiva Hall, the World League venue that has hosted a record 98 matches, with global attendance of over a million spectators in the past 15 editions of the tournament.