CEV Champions League 2018

The mode is unchanged, here are the 12 teams formally qualified for the group stage (round 4) of the competition:

Turkey: Galatasaray ISTANBUL, Fenerbahce ISTANBUL
Russia: Dynamo MOSCOW, Dynamo KAZAN
Poland: Chemik POLICE, Budowlani LODZ
Azerbeijan: (Telekom BAKU bailed out), (Azerrail BAKU -> Challenge cup)

Germany: (SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN -> CEV cup)
Switzerland: Volero ZÜRICH
Italy: Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA
France: ASPTT MULHOUSE

Remarks: Schwerin was considering not to participate, but I can't believe they will skip it and embarass both CEV and VBL as well disappoint their players. Others seem to participate so far I know, despite Lodz may have a really hard time there without some key players... But the mode is too hard for most weaker leagues anyway. Should some team not participate, like in the 2017 season Alba BLAJ from Romania will inherit the free slot.

Qualification field is very uncertain, you have to wait, who wants to participate. For sure the power teams of the top nations will be there, i.e. VakifBank ISTANBUL from Turkey, Imoco CONEGLIANO from Italy and Yenisey KRASNOYARSK from Russia.

Quote from Mimek

There will be probably 3 Azeri teams (one will play qualifications). Thats almost all their league teams

The clubs of Baku have massive financial issues, I would be surprised, if one plays qualification. That only one Italian team is on board in group phase already, is the outcome ("penalty") for not taking part in CEV cup several years, where Italian league lost points in European cup rankings.

Quote from Mimek

Chemik Police confirmed that they will participate next year.

I would have been very surprised, if they would not participate - they are capable and eager to do it.

Quote from rbdfabio

Telekom BAKU, SCHWERIN, MULHOUSE and now VOLERO, all has 0 changes in winning anything. We all know they will finish last in the group, unless 2 of them falls in the same group, but in this case the 2 other teams in the group with them will be automatically in the next round.

I would at the least, replace 2 of them with a Turkish and a Italian Team.

I fully agree with that.

Quote from ignorans

TV commentator said that the budget for next season will be around 1.5 million swiss francs (it was over 3 million before). They plan to play with more young players (Popovic stays though). Terzic is supposed to stay.

German artikle:
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sp…schulhalle/story/25942700

I think they will not be really better than the best three German teams including Schwerin with this budget.

Liu-Jo Nordmeccanica MODENA wants a wildcard from CEV to play CL (qualification, I guess). Because they were vice champions and only via special rule of Italian league Conegliano gets the qualfication slot in CL and considering the CEV cup as not interesting, they decline to play CEV cup, for which they are formally qualified. Now we will see, how much of a favor the CEV will do for an Italian team .

German champions (11 times meanwhile, best team there) SSC Palmberg Schwerin doesn't compete herein. And also neither vice champion Stuttgart nor third Dresden will play even qualification tournament for CL.

Consequence for the competition will be like last season (when some Polish club didn't take part due to loss of much sponsoring money): Romanian champions Alba BLAJ will replace them as best league applicant without fixed CL group slot, they already signaled to participate in qualification, which they can now skip again.

Dresden, participating in CL group phase at last six seasons in a row, criticised Schwerins decision heavily: it would be a reputation damage, the German league will lose points that way and they couldn't inherit this slot from Schwerin (see above), because the CEV rule tells, this empty slot goes to another (next best) league without such an opportunity.

There was no official critique by the VBL, likely, because there are managers both in VBL head as in Schwerin.

Schwerin claims it being too expensive (which is IMHO only partly right for them) and too difficult in organisation (this is very questionable, if you know their capabilities). More likely, the dim perspective, not being able to get through to Playoff 6 is the true reason. But monetary, they could easily calculate for the three safe home matches with renting the expensive video challenge equipment for 10.000 Euro per match, what makes 30.000 Euro in total. Other costs are not that much different to those four years ago, when Schwerin took part in a less demanding CL competition (than three times in a row, by the way).

By the way, no other German team takes part in any European cups at all as those three, which will do in CEV cup, if Schwerin gets the slot for it, they are supposed to be downgraded to Challenge cup due to the rules.

Objectively the competition is too hard for German teams currently, but this holds also true for Alba Blaj or French champions Mulhouse as the Azeri clubs of course, and the coming season probably also Volero Zürich, which is no more on the former high financial level.

The last years Germany only once took all 5 places in the European cups, so losing the top 8 spots in ranking (currently fifth) and the fixed CL slot would not mean too much, only they will get 2 CEV cup and 2 Challenge cup spots than: currently it is one fixed group phase slot, one CL qualification slot (vice champion), two CEV cup slots and one Challenge cup slot.

But altogether it shows the issues around this competition: if you create an extremely elite competition, you will lose the good, but not top teams like this.

Quote from Azvin

Not playing in CL is short-term thinking. It's a matter of investing. By not competing in CL the German league will find it increasingly difficult to attract top-quality foreign players and retain and develop top-quality domestic talent. The long-term result will be a much lower-quality league overall, and a lower-rated league--it's a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Look, I understand it is an expensive process, but that's exactly why the VBL administration needs to find more ways to assist its top clubs to be able to afford to participate.

VBL has nearly no money by itself. The expenses of the one team playing CL would be a good hook for a league sponsor, but they have none.

Quote from rbdfabio

It sucks for the players, especially players like Lippmann, which can use CL to improve her game. But at the same time, the level of German teams is really not high and they will never win anything if they can not sign world class players. And paying money to just compete it is not necessary a smart thing to do, unless you have money sitting around....10.000 Euro per match for the challenge system? VOWW That is expensive.

The same 10.000 Euro per home match are required for laola1.tv live streaming in CL group phase already for many years. Than add up the costs for referees' traveling and hosting, and don't forget the special CL carpet to play on (30 to 50 thousand Euro per season).