CEV Champions League 2018

  • In comparison with other clubs, they also do a good job on twitter (and deserve more follower), IMO. :)


    Not my fault :lol: I'm following them on twitter and added them to my volleyball list there too. Indeed they have yet less followers than Allianz MTV Stuttgart, while I'm guessing, that they are stronger than our German vice champions.

  • I didn't expect that Kamenova will be back so fast. I thought her injury was serious (That's what Developres management said). Kremena wanted to stay in Rzeszow but they decided to sign Rousseaux instead of her.

  • Aside from Plovdivs upset of favourite Krasnoyarsk all other three favourites took their CL pool tickets today:


    Easy living for three times and defending CL champions VakifBank Istanbul: they won in three, only in the first set there was noticable resistence by underdog Minsk in VakifBank Istanbul hall.


    Not so easy was the task for Developres SkyRes Rzeszow: they needed four sets, despite they already advanced thanks to their four set victory in Maribor already after two sets, they lost the third and won the fourth again only by a tight margin (27:25). So they were overall by far not that superiour as they were expected to be.


    Today it could be easily seen, why I personally would have never accepted the rather feeble team of Sliedrecht to take part in CL qualification: losing in Conegliano (which has some important players injured!) with -10, -12, -7. As with Brcko only with homegrown no-name players you can't seriously take part in this competition. The CEV should more thourougly check such applications for CL qualification to prevent damaging the image of this competition by excluding such nonsensical applications IMHO. But maybe Sliedrecht and Brcko finally learned, that this competition is too high above their level.


    So the 16 teams in the draw are now completed with "dark horse" Maritza Plovdiv, defending champions VakifBank Istanbul, Italian standout Imoco Conegliano (the Panthers) and Polish newbies Rzeszow. The draw (DOL) for the pool phase, the "true" CL beginning, will be coming up Friday in Moscow...

  • but Plovdiv had advantages in block kills...


    Don't say Plovdiv! There are many teams in Plovdiv and every one of them has its own sports name. So none is called Plovdiv unlike Germany where it is a common case.

  • My God...Poland has 3 teams in CL and Italy only 2. Yeah that is so right :wall:

  • My God...Poland has 3 teams in CL and Italy only 2. Yeah that is so right :wall:


    You have to decide, what you want: of course you could give the CEV the authority, to decide, how many berths in CL every league gets. For the experts this is no too hard task, a rational proposal would be for example 4 for Turkey (i.e. all big Istanbul teams), 3 for Italy, 2 for Russia, 2 for Poland and maybe one wildcard for one of Germany, France or Romania (to decide on applications/guessing strength?), this would make just three pools of each four teams. Than Playoff-6 makes sense...

  • My God...Poland has 3 teams in CL and Italy only 2. Yeah that is so right :wall:


    Who's fault is it? :) Poland has more points in the rank so they deserved it. If you don't play in CEV Cups, you don't collect the points. It's simple.


  • Who's fault is it? :) Poland has more points in the rank so they deserved it. If you don't play in CEV Cups, you don't collect the points. It's simple.


    Or maybe we should let CEV do their work to make the second-rate european club cup worthwhile for every team competing. :whistle:


    As for now... CEV Cup is just laughably irrelevant compared to the big and competitive leagues of Europe that CEV has to be really stupid in not recognizing the signs of it becoming more and more unworthy of the biggest clubs' attention because of economical and logistical reasons. Not to mention the prize of winning is just too anti-climatic that participating might be a large cause for bankruptcy (and nightmare injuries that can hurt the teams' standing in their leagues.) :whistle:


    I'm still even angry at CEV for not making it a rule that teams winning Champions League should be automatic qualification to the group stage for the next season regardless of their league ranking. What an oversight.

    Favorite players: M: Maxim Mikhaylov, Murilo, Serginho, Aaron Russell, Otavio, Simone Giannelli, Ivan Zaytsev, Tsvetan Sokolov, Michał Kubiak, Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagummy W: Sheilla, Zhu Ting, Natalia, Fe Garay, Fofao, Gabi, Thaisa, Foluke Akinradewo, Wei Qiuyue, Ding Xia, Carli Lloyd, Fabi, Natalia Goncharova, Yuko Sano, Saoris Kimura and Sakoda


    #FreeBritney

  • Who's fault is it? Poland has more points in the rank so they deserved it. If you don't play in CEV Cups, you don't collect the points. It's simple.


    I've always read that ('Italian team didn't partecipate to CEV Cups') as the explanation for this not-correspondent-to-reality ranking.


    But, checking the results of the past three year, you can see that:


    Season 2016-2017: two Italian teams in CL --> one in the play off 6, one in the the final; two team in CEV Cup --> both in semifinal, one in the final.


    Season 2015-2016: three italian teams in CL (even if we weren't in the top two of the ranking...why?) --> one third of the pool ended up in the CEV Cup, one in play off 12 and 6; one winner; CEV Cup: 0 teams (plus one from CL)


    Season 2014-2015: two teams in CL: one to play off 12, one to the final; two teams in CEV Cup: one to quarterfinal, one 16th final (so bad results, but we did partecipate)



    Conclusions: once in three years we didn't have teams participating in CEV Cup, but I guess one was meant to play it but got a spot for the CL (may be some other teams drop off from CL?).


    For the rest, we played 3 (three!!!!!!) finals (actual final, not just final4!) in CL winning once, and one final in CEV Cup (plus one semifinal).
    That should be plenty enough to be higher in the ranking...

  • For season 2017-18 they count season 13/14, 14/15 and 15/16.
    For example, five polish teams played in cev cups in season 13/14.
    In 14/15, Chemik was 4th in CL, Sopot was CEV Cup finalist. If I remember correctly 4 polish teams played in cups.
    In 15/16, two polish teams advanced to play-off 12. 4 polish teams played in cups.


    Kk15, I understand your points, but teams get points for participating. This is the reason why Azerbaijan is so high in the rank. They always had 4 or 5 teams in Cups.

  • For season 2017-18 they count season 13/14, 14/15 and 15/16.


    Oh, there is the 'error' in evaluating the ranking, then (for me): not counting the year right before. I hadn't realized that!


    I cross my finger for next year then, I guess the CL results plus last year CEV Cup results will help us finally raising in the ranking.
    I think also in 2013-2014 we didn't partecipate to the CEV Cup (so it twice in 3 years, not once as I thought) and in that year we also didn't reach CL final4. So that can almost explain the 7th place.



    Kk15, I understand your points, but teams get points for participating. This is the reason why Azerbaijan is so high in the rank. They always had 4 or 5 teams in Cups.


    The point for me is that getting the ranking points just for participating isn't right. Or better, it is right to make the presences count/the absences be a minus, but the presence in CEV Cup shouldn't be so crucial in paragone to very good result in CL, imho.


    I mean, for me a "normal CL (let's say, reaching play offs) + participation at the CEV Cup with normal results" should count more than "normal CL + NOT participation at the CEV Cup", but less than "great CL + NOT participating in the CEV Cup".

  • My God...Poland has 3 teams in CL and Italy only 2. Yeah that is so right :wall:


    Italian teams are weak and many times showed no intrest in playing CEV or Challenge Cup, losing ranking points. BTW I'm not really sad about it. CEV competitions are quite useless right now. Superlega is way more important for clubs and sponsors. Same for Serie A1.

  • Koshkin took responsibility for Kransnoyarsk defeat and resigned (http://www.russiavolley.com/12…ch-of-enisey-krasnoyarsk/). Was a bit unlucky (they had 2 match points...) but made a lot of changes which lead the several situations where coordination and communication failed...


    Another news on WoV sounded more like he was just fired after the disastrous match (I guess, they acquired more money this season because of participation in CL, so bailout before pool stage was not acceptable).

  • The CEV changed the setting of clubs: until last season league came first, now champions come first and vice champions are ranked much lower in the draw. The insane possibility, that mostly rather strong qualification teams can get together with other teams of the same country wasn't resolved. So two Istanbul teams in one group are still possible, which doesn't make any sense IMHO.

  • Teams from the same country directly qualified to CL can't be drawn in the same group, but a directly qualified team can be matched with the one that came through the qualies.


    So, a group with Fenerbahce and Galatasaray or Moscow and Kazan is not possible, but the one with Fenerbahce/Galatasaray and Vakifbank or Novara and Conegliano is.