Champions League 2007/2008 (playoffs/final four)

Official website of Final Four in Łódź
http://www.finalfour2008.pl/

and pics from first training Skra in Łódź http://miasta.gazeta.pl/lodz/51,35137,5059561.html?i=0

Greetings for fans from Piacenza

Congrats to the winners

Sergey Tetyukhin, captain of Dinamo Tattransgaz Kazan: "I am extremely happy that we bacame champion, this title will help us to develop. All the players contributed to this success, everyone played really well. Winning the title was our aim and we made it - that is why we are so cheerful. Copra played really well today; and we had many problems with receiving and attack. Fortunately finally we succeeded, but I would like to congratulate the Italians for their great game. And I would also thank this outstanding audience for the support, it was a great pleasure to play here." Victor Sidelnikov, head coach of Dinamo Tattransgaz Kazan: "Poland seems to be a very friendly country for us. Year by year we train here during summer preparation and later we come back to take the medals. We are a very young team, Dinamo was founded just eight years ago, this makes our success even more important for us. Today we were expecting an easier game, but Piacenza's block played much better than yesterday." Angelo Lorenzetti, head coach of Copra Piacenza: "We should have won the second set today, that would have given us a comfortable 2:0 lead. However, we lost it and the match began to be much more difficult for us. I would like to congratulate Dinamo - they proved they were a very strong opponent."
cev.lu

Individual awards:
MVP: Clayton Stanley (Dinamo Tattransgaz KAZAN)
Best Scorer: Hristo Zlatanov (Copra PIACENZA)
Best Spiker: Mariusz Wlazly (PGE Skra BELCHATOW)
Best Receiver: Alessandro Farina (Sisley TREVISO)
Best Server: Joao Paulo Bravo (Copra PIACENZA)
Best Blocker: Alexander Bogomolov (Dinamo Tattransgaz KAZAN)
Best Setter: Marco Meoni (Copra PIACENZA)
Best Libero: Sergio Dutra Dos Santos (Copra PIACENZA)

Greatest attendance ever for the Cups' finals
2007/08 European Cups

European Cups’ season is now over but echoes and memories from the various finals are yet to be removed or forgotten.
Statistics concerning attendance at the various venues confirm that such events are becoming a sort of big happening for the hosting cities and are also enjoying an astonishing popularity across Europe. All in all, the six finals of the Men’s and Women’s European Cups were namely attended by more than 80,000 spectators, with Poland ensuring a great contribution to that total amount (+4.9% in comparison with the 2006/07 finals).
The Final Four of the 2007/08 Indesit European Champions’ League which was staged in Lodz was completely sold-out in less than 24 hours after tickets went on sale and more than 30,000 people attended the event on site. Poland is becoming some kind of a volleyball land and the passion for that discipline is corroborated by the figures dealing with the Men’s Challenge Cup Final Four which was held in Rzeszów (13,580 spectators during the whole weekend). Although a minor event in comparison with the Indesit European Champions’ League, still the local organizers got an impressive attendance even in spite of a quite disappointing performance for the local team.
Remarkable improvements have been achieved especially as far as the attendance to the finals of both the CEV and Challenge Cups is concerned, as this figure more than doubled in comparison with last year’s performance (43,730 spectators for the 2007/08 finals vs. 21,050 for the 2006/07 Cups). Apart from Rzeszów, arenas were packed with enthusiastic fans even in Rome, Belgrade and Bursa for the joy of both the CEV and the local National Federations.
The CEV would like to express its gratitude to all National Federations and local clubs appointed to stage the very last step of the European Cups for all the efforts they have devoted for a successful outcome of their respective events as well as for their contribution to the promotion of volleyball across Europe and among the media.

CEV