Volleyball’s popularity is on the rise .The Malta Volleyball Association is seeing its work come to fruition with the six new clubs which have registered for this new season.

Phoenix Volley, TGIF, Birkirkara, Mellieha Bullets, Sliema, and Defenders are all new clubs which will be participating in the MVA leagues this season. These clubs are composed of players with an avid enthusiasm for the game.

Most of these clubs were formed during last year which was packed with activities organised by the MVA.

One of these activities was the Social League, which was set up specifically to introduce new players to the game, and to re-integrate seasoned players who had not played volleyball for a while. The intensive summer Beach Volley season, with a total of 24 events being held across Malta’s popular beaches, also attracted a large number of participants which paved the way to rising volleyball popularity.

This coming season’s busy calendar will see the re-introduction of the Second Division which has not been scheduled for a quite a number of years .The “Spike Girls”, Junior Volleyball national team, will be playing in the European Championship during Easter next year. Furthermore, in May and June the ECH competitions for Senior Men and Women categories will be taking place in Malta.

Since Beach Volley has proved its huge popularity on our island, the MVA is going a step further by undertaking an ambitious project, which is, the staging of a series of international Beach Volley tournaments including European championships starting from 2010.

The discussions were held with the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball (CEV), after having acknowledged the potential of Malta’s amenable climate and natural advantages.

These positive qualities make Malta an ideal location for Beach Volley European events, even outside the usual summer months.

Preliminary talks held with the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth and Sports, and the possible involvement of the Malta Tourism Authority, give MVA hope that essential support for this unique series of events will be provided.