MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Italian specialist Sergio Busato has signed a contract with the All-Russia Volleyball Federation (RVF) as the new head coach of the national women’s team, RVF President Stanislav Shevchenko told TASS on Monday.

"Busato has signed a contract," Shevchenko said. "As we have planned in advance, the contract will be in force until the end of the [2020 Summer] Olympics in Tokyo."

Earlier this month, the RVF Presidium confirmed the candidacy of Busato to the post of the head coach of the Russian national women’s volleyball team and he had to sign the contract with the Russian governing volleyball body to finalize the formalities.

The Italian specialist was appointed the acting head coach of the national team after his predecessor, Vadim Pankov, retired shortly before the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup in Japan in September.

Busato, 53, has been working as a volleyball coach in Russia almost since the turn of the century both at the national and clubs levels with male and female teams. He was also behind the Russian national men volleyball team’s gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.