The Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol (CSV) ( Portuguese: ) is the continental governing body for the sports of

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Its

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

is located in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Profile

The CSV's origins are still under dispute. Some argue it was founded in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

on February 12, 1946; some, that it was founded in

on July 3 of the same year. Either way, it was formed even before the FIVB itself, and stands as the oldest of all volleyball continental confederations. Up to now (2004), the CSV has had a total of eight presidents, all but one from national federations with some volleyball tradition at a certain point in history: Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia, which is the exception. Following the election of the current president, Brazilian Mr. Ary Graça Filho, in 2003 the headquarters were relocated from

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The CSV presides over national volleyball federations located in South America and organizes continental competitions such as the South American Men's Volleyball Championship (first edition, 1951) and the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

, sometimes in conjunction with the FIVB and with other confederations, notably NORCECA with whom CSV co-organises the Pan-American tournaments. It also takes part in the organization of qualification tournaments for major events such as the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

or the men's and women's world championships, and of international competitions hosted by one of its affiliated federations.CSV History

Teams

Lately, the only national South American federation with expressive results in international competitions is Brazil, which maintains intensive development programs for men's and women's volleyball. Argentina has some tradition in men's volleyball, but it has shown unmistakable signs of decline: in recent years, Venezuela has been constantly threatening to take its long held position as the second volleyball force of the continent. However, Argentina is still one of the dominant forces in Men's volleyball. With a silver medal at the Seoul Olympic Games, Peru had a very strong women's volleyball team in the 1980s. Its level of play has nevertheless dropped after the retirement of superstar players like Cecilia Tait, Natalia Málaga, Rosa García and Gabriela Pérez del Solar. Nevertheless, Peru is still a respectively good team, and one of the main forces of the continent. In recent years, the Junior and Youth categories in both boys and girls categories have started to shine in the CSV; as with their senior teams, Brazil in one of the world main forces in Junior and Youth categories but Argentina and Peru have started to shine in the Boys and Girls category respectively; after the I Youth Olympic Games where Argentinean boys got silver and Peruvian girls took bronze, Argentina claimed the top spot and Peru the third spot at the FIVB Senior World Rankings.CSV Affiliated Federations