2014 French Ligue A

    First queue behind US.

    Sensation- Champion and Host Tours VB lost to Newcomer ASUL Lyon Volley -16, 22, -20, -22.

    In Lyon play Bulgarian Players, right?

    Vladimir Nikolov and Teodor Salparov are the new Bulgarian players in Lyon but it was team effort. Bojidar Slavev best scorer for Lyon


    http://datavolley.lnv.fr/2013/…lley/Men/&LAM001-1314.pdf

    I can't remember a stronger French league. Or I should rather say well balanced. We've seen Tours and Paris Volley with better squads before, but overall the championship this season looks very competitive. Each team has a decent selection of players, many quality foreigners arrived and got contracted by almost all teams. You can't really say how the table is going to look like in, let's say, February. The league is for sure worth following and I hope we will keep up with the results here. Feel free to contribute!

    As I expected, it has been indeed an interesting season. Tours finished atop, but I guess none would've correctly predicted the other positions. I mean, look at the table - Ajaccio second, Paris third, Lyon with Prandi, Salparov, Nikolov and Tischer struggling to escape relegation till the very last round, Cannes and one of the pre-season favourites Montpellier out of the playoffs, the latter even close to the relegation spots. Quite a disappointment for a team composed of players like Le Marrec, Redwitz, Le Goff, Lyneel and coached by Philippe Blain. Also, Narbonne got relegated (due to the last round home defeat against Lyon) even if they have Guillermo Falasca in their roster. I still think this has been the most balanced league this year in Europe.

    Quote from YavorD

    As I expected, it has been indeed an interesting season. Tours finished atop, but I guess none would've correctly predicted the other positions. I mean, look at the table - Ajaccio second, Paris third, Lyon with Prandi, Salparov, Nikolov and Tischer struggling to escape relegation till the very last round, Cannes and one of the pre-season favourites Montpellier out of the playoffs, the latter even close to the relegation spots. Quite a disappointment for a team composed of players like Le Marrec, Redwitz, Le Goff, Lyneel and coached by Philippe Blain. Also, Narbonne got relegated (due to the last round home defeat against Lyon) even if they have Guillermo Falasca in their roster. I still think this has been the most balanced league this year in Europe.


    I never saw such balanced season in France, even not in all European leagues, and France is league I follow the most :obey: there were a lot of surprises, unpredictable results but Ajaccio is the greatest surprise of all. This is their first praticipation in playoffs and Fernandez did great job. Second biggest surprise is Cannes and this season is tragedy for them. They had 2nd budget in league after Tours, with win against St. Nazaire in last round could qualify for PO but they lost 0:3 :wacko: just incredibile. Narbonne, last year semifinalist, relegated but I'm not surprised. There were a lot of internal problems in lockeroom, Herpe left team after conflict with Marcilio, after that Marcilio was released and in last 2 matches they played without Delgado due injury. They also got fined for some financial irregularities and DNACG took 3 pts.


    Tours also fined by deducting 6 pts and 7500 € for irregularities. 3rd biggest surprise is Rennes who relegated along Narbonne. They had disastrous season although Grebennikov got solid squad. During winter break they replaced 3 players, after that signed Ćaćić and Tarr, board sacked Grebennikov but nothing helped. They've won French Cup just 2 years ago... I've to admitt that Saint Nazaire is surprise also. They relied on 2 playersonly , Troy and Cabral, and managed to keep Ligue A status. Lyon had major problems during season, most coz of Salparov, Nikolov and Tischer were injured. Signing Toontje Van Lankvelt was great move by board and Nikolov showed his skills in crucial matches.


    Ivović is the topscorer, frankly I cant remember who was the last OH who won this prize. Before Serbian oppposites were dominant in this area, Bartik, Falasca, Rejlek etc.


    Regarding Montpellier... tough to say but expectations were higher for sure. Lyneel wasn't injured most of season, he missed last 9-10 matches. Doctors made wrong estimation on his injury and that was main reason why they signed Martino that late. Also, Louis Nicollin (owner of Football Club Montpellier) said he will cut sponsorship money if they finish behind Sete :rolll: that happened so Montpellier's budget should be "shorter" next season :whistle:


    Nantes had really bad luck with injuries. Christiansky broke cruciate ligaments and he is out since early January, then month ago Perez picked up finger injury and they didn't have 2nd choice on opposite. But they managed to secure PO spot for 4th consecutive time.