NAIROBI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- African Volleyball Confederation (CAVB) has increased the number of beach volleyball qualifiers to 24 at the 2019 All Africa Games, which will be held in Casablanca, Morocco in August.
CAVB president Amr Elwani said Wednesday that the qualifying tournament features seven zonal competitions and the best 24 from men's and women's teams make it to Morocco finals.
"The 24 beach volleyball teams will be divided into six preliminary pools of four teams and the top two from each pool will advance to the knockout stage," said Elwani.
In the last games in Brazzaville in 2015, Beach volleyball had 12 teams per gender. That number has now doubled owing to it popularity among the fans.
"The CAVB Board will determine the qualification procedure for the 7 zones to determine the final 24 qualified teams. The qualifiers calendar will be determined later," said Elwani.
Similarly, CAVB is yet to announce the host nation of the senior Africa Beach Cup, which will take place from March 27-31.
Elwani said the event will be used as the continental qualifiers for the 2019 FIVB beach volleyball World Championship.
In a statement, Elwani said the continent has a busy calendar includes the 2019 CAVB U21 Beach Cup and its qualifiers, the sub Zonal and Zonal phases for the CAVB Continental Cup, the first Beach Games in Cape Verde and the 2019 All Africa Games and its qualifiers.
"The African volleyball confederation announced the calendar for 2019 and invites bids to stage the competitions. The zonal qualifiers for the CAVB U21 Beach Cup will be held on Feb. 21-24, while finals will be organized from March 20-24," said Elwani.
