© Confédération Européenne de Volleyball e-News No 35 – 4/2011

e-News No 35 – 4/2011 © Confédération Européenne de Volleyball

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Introduction

Dear Volleyball fans,

I can proudly look back at the past few weeks as the final rounds of the 2011 CEV Volleyball Euro-pean Championship turned into a major success with the competition halls being fully packed as the very best teams from our Continent were fighting for gold and sportive glory for their respective countries.

Finally Serbia came out on top in Vienna as well as in Belgrade thereby impressively backing up the stellar re-sults achieved in the past couple of years also by their youth and junior national teams. In this sense Serbia in-credibly emulated the Soviet Union, the very last nation whose men and women were able to almost simultane-ously seize the European crown some twenty years ago.

However, I also have to recall the unique legacy of the XXXII CEV General Assembly held in Vienna this past September whereby I got the honor and the pleasure to be re-elected as CEV President for a third term. As I sincerely thank all those who have been support-ing me I can only promise you that together with my colleagues of the Board of Administration and the sup-port of the members nominated for the various Commis-sions and of our head office we will be working hard to live up to the expectations of the Volleyball family and

to guarantee a bright future for Volleyball and Beach Volleyball not simply in Europe, but also worldwide by closely cooperating with the FIVB and our friends from the four remaining Continental Confederations.

André MeyerCEV President

André Meyer to chair CEV for 4 more years,

composition of Board is determined

André Meyer was re-elected President of the European Volleyball Confederation this past September 17 in Vi-enna for another four-year term by receiving an almost unanimous mandate from the delegates representing a total of 54 National Federations that were in attendance at the XXXII CEV General Assembly. After assuming the Presidency of the CEV back in 2001, Mr. Meyer has been driving the European Volleyball Confederation throughout 10 years of massive development for the sport and will be chairing Europe’s Volleyball governing body for the next 4 years. “I have to sincerely thank all of you” said Mr. Meyer, evidently touched, “for your support. I also feel the re-sponsibility to pay back the trust and confidence you have shown in me and I will be working hard to live up to your high expectations also in the years to come”.

CEV President André Meyer addressing the delegates after his re-election for another 4-year term

Elections took place also for the CEV Board of Admin-

© Confédération Européenne de Volleyball e-News No 35 – 4/20112

istration with Mr. Meyer being joined there by Aleksan-dar Boricic (SRB), Agustin Martin Santos (ESP), Renato Arena (ITA), Banu Can Schürmann (LIE), Jan Hronek (CZE), Achilleas Mavromatis (GRE), Miroslaw Przedpel-ski (POL), Philip Berben (BEL), Vladimir Patkin (RUS), Sinem Mavili (TUR), Peter Kleinmann (AUT), Dancho Lazarov (BUL), Eric Adler (DEN), Margaret Ann Fleming (SCO), Maris Pekalis (LAT) and Lubor Halanda (SVK).

Aleksandar Boricic was appointed CEV Senior Vice President, Philip Berben Vice President & Treasurer, Jan Hronek Vice President Responsible for Administrative Af-fairs, while additional Vice Presidents are Agustin Martin Santos, Renato Arena, Miroslaw Przedpelski, Banu Can Schürmann and Sinem Mavili.

A common picture with all members of the CEV Board of Administration elected for the term 2011-2015

Presidents were appointed also for all Commissions cre-ated under the umbrella of the CEV:

European Financial Commission (EFC): Philip Berben (BEL); European Beach Volleyball Commission (EBVC): Renato Arena (ITA); European Cups Commission (ECC): Riet Ooms (NED); European Medical Commission (EMC): Prof. Dr. Manfred Holzgraefe (GER); European Legal Commission (ELC): Aloys Fischer (SUI); European Sports Organizing Commission (ESOC): Pierre Mulheims (LUX); European Refereeing Commission (ERC): Jan Rek (SUI);European Coaches Commission (ECOC): Aleksandar Boricic (SRB).

Elections were held also to determine the European mem-bers of the FIVB Board of Administration starting from fall 2012, as the next FIVB Congress is set to take place in Anaheim, USA, in late October next year. Together with Mr. Meyer this duty was assigned to Alek-sandar Boricic, Miroslaw Przedpelski, Renato Arena, Philip Berben, Stanislav Shevchenko (RUS), Vicente de Araujo (POR), Theofanis Tsiokris (GRE) and Agustin Mar-tin Santos.

After some months and weeks of very tough work the CEV unveiled in Vienna also its new website. More user-friendly and with many additional resources, the website is still partly a work in progress but shall definitely live up to the expectations of all fans as well as of the media.

CEV and Mikasa extend their partnership for another quadrennial

Only a few hours before the opening of the XXXII CEV General Assembly and right upon completion of the classy quarterfinal whereby Serbia claimed a spot among the top four of the EuroVolley 2011, the European Vol-leyball Confederation and Japan’s Mikasa Corporation Ltd. – represented by its President, Mr. Taketoshi Saeki – signed an extension of their partnership for the period spanning through 2012-2016. Mikasa will be the official ball supplier for all CEV Vol-leyball and Beach Volleyball events up to 2016 thereby prolonging the extremely fruitful cooperation from the past few years. “Mikasa is exceedingly honored with the con-tract and the opportunity to cooperate again with the CEV to promote the growth of Volleyball all over Europe, pro-viding everyone there with the right products for practicing the sport of Volleyball” said Mr. Saeki.

CEV President André Meyer and Mr. Taketoshi Saeki, President of Mikasa Corporation Ltd., signing an extension

of their partnertship up to 2016

A special dinner was organized in combination with the signature of the contract in the VIP area of the “Wiener Stadthalle” and CEV President André Meyer used this op-portunity to unveil – together with Mr. Saeki – the brand-new uniform especially designed by Mikasa Corporation for Volleyball referees. “With this outfit I think we are moving forward by providing our referees with a uniform which looks more casual and will contribute to the constant upgrade of the image of our sport we are all closely working for” stated Mr. Meyer.

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CEV signs partnership with UEPS to support young reporters

As the very last act of the EuroVolley 2011 was still about to come and after the XXXII General Assembly had come to a close on Saturday, September 17, one day later CEV President André Meyer joined an ad-hoc press confer-ence whereby he briefed the media about the latest up-dates resulting from the busy week he went through in Austria’s capital city. After his re-election for another term of 4 years, Mr. Meyer primarily shared his intention to co-operate with the FIVB to revise the international calendar by reducing the excessive number of competitions that is currently affecting also the health of the players.

CEV President André Meyer together with UEPS President Yannis Daras as they finalize their cooperation agreement

for the support of young reporters

“We want to find a consensus with the FIVB possibly drop-ping the many qualification rounds we play as they keep the players busy for most of the year” he said. On the other hand, he insisted also on the necessity for Europe to implement development projects that can help boost the popularity of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball among the youth. “We have ascertained that in many countries Volleyball is not being played at all at school, while some others have been able to work out very interesting actions to attract as many youngsters as possible to our sport. We shall learn from these experiences, share their formula with other nations and work intensively also to support grass-roots projects. This will be the task of the National Federations but also of our office where we are going to create a department specifically dealing with these items” stated Meyer.

As far as the CEV headquarters are concerned, Meyer praised the work delivered by Administrative Director Ol-ivier Mottier who, after ten years of loyal service to the CEV, was supposed to leave right after the General As-sembly with his duties and tasks being taken over by Thorsten Endres of Germany.

Finally, in an attempt to exploit a good connection with the media for the benefit of Volleyball, the CEV President fi-

nalized an agreement with the UEPS (Union Européenne de la Presse Sportive, Media European Union of Sports Press) that was represented in Vienna by its chairman, Mr. Yannis Daras. Via this partnership the CEV and the UEPS committed themselves to train and support young reporters devoting their attention to Volleyball and Beach Volleyball, being convinced that the youngsters are a market to be properly addressed also by recruiting jour-nalists that can profit of their age to work out a different approach, style and touch as they write or report about the sport.

Serbia is the 2011 European champion!

Serbia was crowned European champion in Vienna at the end of a classy final match that with 9’750 spectators registered a record-breaking attendance for a Volleyball game in Austria. Italy was defeated in four sets (17-25, 25-20, 25-23, 26-24) with captain Ivan Miljkovic being absolutely outstanding and taking by the hand his young teammates for what was the well deserved climax of a memorable EuroVolley.

The Serbian team captained by Ivan Miljkovic on top of the podium in Vienna

Serbia and Italy also claimed the two slots at stake to rep-resent Europe at the FIVB World Cup scheduled for this coming November in Japan and where tickets will be as-signed for the Volleyball tournament of the 2012 London Olympics.

© Confédération Européenne de Volleyball e-News No 35 – 4/20114

Serbian joy at the “Wiener Stadthalle” after an ace of Milos Terzic says the final word of a classy final match against

Italy

The final game of the EuroVolley 2011 attracted a mas-sive crowd at the “Wiener Stadthalle” with Italy and Serbia extending their rivalry although both teams have been to-tally rejuvenated in comparison with the past years. Luigi Mastrangelo and Ivan Miljkovic were the only guys who had battled already in the beginning of the past decade as Italy and the Yugoslavia – later Serbia and Montenegro – were among the dominant forces of international Vol-leyball. After four sets of high-class Volleyball, an ace of Milos Terzic bounced the audience into heaven as Serbia claimed the European title 10 years after the then Yugo-slavia had accomplished the same feat in Ostrava.

Two years ago in Izmir Poland had caused quite a major sensation by striking gold at the European Championship and this time there was one guy out there that will be cer-tainly remembered as the match winner of the classifica-tion game against Russia played in Vienna.

Bartosz Kurek (23) is the up-and-coming star of the Polish national team that claimed bronze in Vienna

Bartosz Kurek is only 23 years old, but already a real star who in Austria’s capital city won the personal duel with Maxim Mikhaylov, Russia’s greatest Volleyball player nowadays. With this bronze Poland adds an eighth medal to its showcase from the European Championship and

this is certainly a great result also for Italian-born head coach Andrea Anastasi who had accepted this past March the challenge to mentor this team with the main goal to claim a medal at next year’s London Olympics.

Final standings

1.Serbia 2.Italy 3.Poland 4.Russia 5.Slovakia 6.Bulgaria 7.France 8.Finland 9.Slovenia 10.Czech Republic 11.Turkey 12.Estonia 13.Belgium 14.Portugal 15.Germany 16.Austria

Serbian ladies fly to first gold medal in history with unbelievable comeback

With an incredible comeback in the fourth set, host Serbia claimed gold at the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Cham-pionship – Women. Two weeks after Serbia’s men team won gold at the EuroVolley 2011 in Vienna, the Serbian ladies offered their home crowd Europe’s crown for the first time in history by overpowering Germany 3-2 (16-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20, 15-9) in front of 9’000 thrilled fans. Best scorers of the match were Margareta Anna Kozuch and Maren Brinker with twenty points each, while Brizitka Molnar booked 17 kills for Serbia.Serbia head coach Zoran Terzic said: “First I would like to thank everyone who helped us get here, but I’m sure I won’t remember all of them. Then I would like to congratu-late my amazing team. They made dreams come true this year and they confirmed it tonight. I’m more than satisfied with winning this gold medal, adding it to the men’s gold medal. This fact shows how Volleyball in Serbia is mas-

© Confédération Européenne de Volleyball e-News No 35 – 4/20115

sively growing”.

The girls of Serbia’s national team celebrating their gold medal in front of a fantastic home audience at the “Pionir”

sports hall in Beograd

Team captain Jelena Nikolic added: “This match was the final I dreamt of, and I think we both deserved to be here. I thank my girls, since we produced an amazing show to-night. Some people had some doubts about our young team, but we proved them that with our strong motivation and will everything is possible. Thank you for believing in us and helping us achieve what we have achieved tonight”.

After their hard-fought semifinal versus host Serbia (2:3) the day before, Turkey proved strong nerves and great physical skills to overpower 2007 and 2009 champion Italy in a inspiring five-setter (25-21, 15-25, 25-27, 25-19, 15-10) to claim bronze at the 2011 CEV Volleyball Eu-ropean Championship – Women. It is the second medal for Turkey’s women national team after having won silver back in 2003 in Ankara.

Great joy in Beograd as Turkey claims its second European medal in history

Turkey’s Neslihan Darnel was the outstanding player of the match, scoring 31 points for her team. Carolina Costa-grande of Italy added 22 kills to her personal record book. Turkey’s head coach Marco Aurelio Motta commented: “For us, this is a medal of the utmost importance and it is

also for the Turkish Volleyball family. This is the second medal we won; the first one was in Ankara back in 2003. We took this medal, which is very nice, and I’m very happy for it. My team improved, we do have young players who showed their skills. Both yesterday’s and today’s matches were stressful, but we kept our physical and mental en-ergy, that’s why we beat great teams and I’m happy and proud because of it”.

Final standings

1. Serbia2. Germany 3. Turkey 4. Italy 5. Poland 6. Russia 7. The Netherlands 8. Czech Republic 9. Azerbaijan 10. France 11. Spain 12. Romania 13. Croatia 14. Bulgaria 15. Ukraine 16. Israel

Pools for Olympic pre-qualification tournaments are set

After completion of the 2011 European Championship and with the FIVB having assigned the wild cards avail-able for joining the upcoming World Cup in Japan, teams were finally allocated to the pre-qualification tournaments that are slated for November and that represent the next step along the road to the 2012 Olympic Games in Lon-don. With some countries having advanced to this stage by claiming the elimination round that wound up in early September, the Pools were completed by seeding the re-maining teams as per their ranking in the final round of the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship. The winners of the pre-qualification phase will advance to the European Qualification Tournament scheduled for May 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Istanbul, Turkey, for men and women respectively where one ticket to represent Europe at the Olympics will be at stake. The composition of the Pools for the men’s pre-qualifica-tion tournaments that will be running through November 22-27 reads as follows (organizers are marked in bold):

© Confédération Européenne de Volleyball e-News No 35 – 4/20116

Tournament 1: Slovakia, Turkey, Estonia, Austria, Spain, Montenegro Tournament 2: France, Czech Republic, Belgium, Ger-many, Greece, Latvia Tournament 3: Finland, Slovenia, Portugal, Croatia, Netherlands, Ukraine

The composition of the Pools for the women’s pre-quali-fication tournaments that will be running through Novem-ber 8-13 reads as follows (organizers are marked in bold):

Tournament 1: Russia, Spain, Romania, Belgium, Slova-kia, Austria Tournament 2: Netherlands, France, Croatia, Israel, Greece, Sweden Tournament 3: Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Denmark

The formula of the pre-qualification tournaments is the same for men and women, i.e. the six teams are divided into two groups of three each, playing there a single round robin, before the first and second ranked play crossed semifinals thereby eventually qualifying for the final game.

Third consecutive crown for TRENTINO as Rabita BAKU takes women’s title in Doha

Italy’s TRENTINO Diatec recovered from a first set loss to win the 2011 FIVB Club World Championship with a 3:1 (29-31, 25-16, 25-11, 25-16) victory over JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel of Poland in Doha, Qatar.This is the third consecutive crown for TRENTINO at the FIVB Men’s Club World Championship including 15 straight matches in the event since 2009. Six players – Matey Kaziyski, Osmany Juantorena, Tsvetan Sokolov, Lukasz Zygadlo, Andrea Bari and Raphael Vieira de Oliveira – have been a part of all three titles, while Jan Stokr, Massimo Colaci and Dore Della Lunga were includ-ed in the team that had claimed last year’s championship as well. Czech giant Jan Stokr contributed 21 points for TREN-TINO Diatec, while the team’s captain Matey Kaziyski sparked the Italian club with 20 additional points. Italian Michal Lasko charted 19 points and Michal Kubiak added 12 for the likes of JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel. Russia’s Zenit KAZAN – runner-up of the last CEV Volley-ball Champions League – had to be content with bronze after seeing off Sesi SAO PAULO of Brazil in the classifi-cation match thereby completing a European sweep of all

medals at stake.

The guys of TRENTINO Diatec celebrate their third consecutive crown at the Club World Champs

Azerbaijan’s Rabita BAKU claimed the gold medal in the women’s competition by defeating VakifBank TTelekom ISTANBUL in straight sets (25-15, 25-18, 25-9) and tak-ing its revenge after losing the final game of the CEV Vol-leyball Champions League this past March with the same score. Croatian opposite Natasa Osmokrovic sparked Rabita BAKU early and finished the match with 16 points while captain Natalya Mammadova ended the game with 12. Rabita BAKU follows Turkey’s Fenerbahce ISTANBUL that had won that competition last year with the Cham-pionship having been re-introduced in 2010 after a very long break.

CEV Calendar – The most important dates at a glance up to

late November

Volleyball

2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men 25-27.10.2011 - League Round - Second Leg

2012 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men 25-27.10.2011 - 16th Final - Away matches

2012 Olympic Games - Pre-qualification tournaments 8-13.11.2011 - Women in RUS, CRO and AZE 22-27.11.2011 - Men in SVK, FRA and CRO

2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Women 29.11-01.12.2011 - League Round - First Leg

2012 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women 29.11-01.12.2011 - 16th Final - Home matches

2012 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup - Women 29.11-01.12.2011 - Second round - Home matches