Display MoreI don't think this is a matter of wether I made a mistake or not. It's matter of opinion: you can agree or disagree with me, but it's not about mistake or being right.
And I stand by my opinion: wild card SHOULD BE about technical criteria. I find it hard to find people that would agree that by technical criteria, Poland should get a wild card over Russia. If the criteria were "whoever gets 3rd on the european championship", then, now it'd be ok to say: it's fair that Poland gets the wild card. But as I understand, rules are: "wil card goes to whoever FIVB says it goes". And then, doesn't matter if it's for technical reasons or whatsoever. But it's too bad that it is "whatsoever" instead of technical reasons, cause I think wild card should be handed to make the competition better, to bring better teams to the tournament.
Judging from a mere technical point of view, I think that the first wild card should go to Russia, cause regardless of the result of the bronze medal, they're one of the very greatest teams in the world. It would make the competition better, more interesting.
If FIVB would hand a second wild card for an european team, I think they could choose from a great number of teams: Poland, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Finland, etc. And it'd be ok, no problem with that.
But unfortunately, Poland's wild card has nothing to do with that. I don't think it's unfortunate the TV announced it earlier: they're just making it more transparent what's it all about.
(Just to be clear: I have nothing against Poland, neither the team, nor its fans. I just don't agree with this sort of political decision. And if it's to be made like this, I'd much rather that they made Poland host the WC, so we wouldn't have to spend one more spot with Japan. And judging from the technical point of view, at least in the male side, Poland would be a much better option to host.)
And that's my opinion.
Yes, I completely agree with yates here!