CEV Champions League 2019

  • After Change of Rules and Ranking we have now the following now confirmed pool stage participants:


    Turkey: VakifBank ISTANBUL, Eczacibasi ISTANBUL, Fenerbahce ISTANBUL
    Italy: Imoco CONEGLIANO, Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA, Savino del Bene SCANDICCI
    Russia: Dinamo KAZAN, Dinamo MOSCOW, Uralochka NTMK EKATERINBURG


    Poland: Chemik POLICE, LKS Commercecon LODZ
    France: BÉZIERS VB (Angels), RC CANNES


    Switzerland: (Volero is going down to Challenge cup with French Le Cannet license now)
    Romania: CSM BUKAREST
    Germany: SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN


    Serbia: (Vizura RUMA - not enough money, not playing European cups anymore at all)
    Czech: (Agel PROSTEJOV see below)


    Teams, which indeed inherited open berths (three, see above):


    Slovenia: (Nova KBM Branik MARIBOR didn't want this, plays CEV cup instead)
    Belorus: Minchanka MINSK (now in Russian Superleague, but as Belorus team)
    Bulgaria: Maritza PLOVDIV
    Finland: HPK HÄMEENLINNA


    Czech republic: Agel PROSTEJOV no more, it seems, they have not anymore the money for it


    Because Volero now plays with license of (Rocheville) LE CANNET in French league, they should inherit just their Challenge cup berth, nothing more. But of course, CEV has to decide - and did as expected.


    Azerrail BAKU is supposed like last year to play at most Challenge cup due to financial shortcomings, could theoretically inherit a slot too (unlikely) - confirmed, again in Challenge cup.


    The below is now obsolete because of rule changes after publishing the first ranking for new season!


    (The 12 teams formally were qualified for pool stage, with remarks about it in and below of it:


    Turkey: VakifBank ISTANBUL, Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL
    Russia: Dynamo MOSCOW, Dynamo KAZAN
    Italy: Imoco CONEGLIANO, Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA
    Germany: (SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN, Allianz MTV STUTTGART - both highly unlikely to participate, see below)


    Switzerland: (Volero ZÜRICH - not eligible because of league change I expect)
    Poland: Chemik POLICE
    France: BÉZIERS VB (Angels)
    Romania: CSM BUKAREST)

  • Some more teams interesting or at least having a decent level, which are eligible respective might apply for qualification rounds, now adapted to the massive ranking changes by CEV and also confirmed by CEV meanwhile:


    Poland: (Grot) Budowlani LODZ
    France: ASPTT MULHOUSE


    Romania: Alba BLAJ
    Germany: Allianz MTV STUTTGART


    Slovenia: (Calcit KAMNIK -> lower competition)
    Finland: (HPK HÄMEENLINNA inherited pool stage berth, see first post above)
    Hungary: (Linamar) BEKESCSABAI Röplabda
    Belgium: (Asterix AVO BEVEREN only CEV cup)
    Ukraine: (Khimik YUZHNY -> lower competition)


    Greece: Olympiacos PIRAEUS didn't apply and sticks to Challenge Cup, which they won the season before (why?). I would have expected, that they at least opt for CEV cup now.

  • I think Scandicci already got their ticket because first of all didn't Italy got 3 spot for next CL ? And in interview Bosetti and Haak already said that they can't wait to perform in CL.

  • I think Scandicci already got their ticket because first of all didn't Italy got 3 spot for next CL ? And in interview Bosetti and Haak already said that they can't wait to perform in CL.


    All top four ranked league have two berths in pool stage and one for qualifcation rounds, so this applies also for Italy. Qualification is already counted as CL competition part indeed, but with lesser demands as in pool stage (no video challenge nor laola1.tv high quality stream required).

  • I think Scandicci already got their ticket because first of all didn't Italy got 3 spot for next CL ? And in interview Bosetti and Haak already said that they can't wait to perform in CL.


    2+1
    2 in pool stage, 1 team in qualification round.

  • Seems like Prostejov will not participate in the Champions League (rather in CEV or Challenge Cup), at least as i understand the translation of an interview with their coach on their website:
    http://www.vkprostejov.cz/index.php?novinka=4157


    That's a pity... was a nice team to root for in the CL.


    How many teams will have to say "NO" until CEV EVENTUALLY starts to "rethink" all its regulations and requirements for participation :rolleyes:

  • Seems like Prostejov will not participate in the Champions League (rather in CEV or Challenge Cup), at least as i understand the translation of an interview with their coach on their website:
    http://www.vkprostejov.cz/index.php?novinka=4157


    That's a pity... was a nice team to root for in the CL.


    How many teams will have to say "NO" until CEV EVENTUALLY starts to "rethink" all its regulations and requirements for participation :rolleyes:


    Yes, the head coach is rather clear, that they will no more participate in CL opposed to the last years, sounds like reduced budget as (core) issue. They will go down to CEV cup or Challenge cup, depending what the CEV decides.


    IMHO the CEV respects only the top leagues Turkey, Russia, Italy and a little bit Poland too, and don't care for the others. If they proceed this way, they will effectively eliminate any other league in the mid-to-long run from this elite competition - maybe this is even, what they are aiming for?

  • That's actually very sad that teams refuse to join due to financial reasons. That simply means CEV is offering no financial value for them or incentives. In football, teams get lots of money when they participate in european cups, for every match they win or have a draw and that makes the quality much better. Sorry but it is simply stupid to ask teams to invest so much money when you don't offer them anything back :wavy:

  • Yeah you are right. In Croatia football team Dinamo got a lot of muny from football federation after they quailfly for CL and for them it was so important to play CL, not only to play but also because they got huge money.
    And still you need to pay 100.000€ to FIVB or CEV to play at WCCH or CL. So stupid.

  • The reality is, federations like DVV in Germany or the Czech pendant have no money to give to the qualifying clubs currently. And at least in Germany there is no other party helping financially too; this CL participation has to be financed only by the sponsors, in Stuttgart even solely by private money. - This would be one area, where a league sponsor would definitely help the teams.

  • WorldOfVolley reports, that the technical timeouts are no more in all CEV competitions from now on - here in CL this is reasonable, I think, because of the video challenge system, but is this an improvement for the other competitions?

  • CEV has made some major changes in CL: http://www.cev.lu/News.aspx?Ne…0&Sd=1/1/1900&Ed=1/1/1900


    Key points are that the ranking system determining the participants has changed from an overall European Cups system to one only for CL which also counts also only the CL results of the countries and there will be no more F4 but quarter- and semifinals with home and away matches and a "big final" where men and women final will be played on neutral ground on two consecutive days.


    Not sure if this is going to improve the competition...

  • CEV has made some major changes in CL: http://www.cev.lu/News.aspx?Ne…0&Sd=1/1/1900&Ed=1/1/1900


    Key points are that the ranking system determining the participants has changed from an overall European Cups system to one only for CL which also counts also only the CL results of the countries and there will be no more F4 but quarter- and semifinals with home and away matches and a "big final" where men and women final will be played on neutral ground on two consecutive days.


    Not sure if this is going to improve the competition...

    I like it that there is no more F4. To me it is just silly when teams get to the F4 just because they are hosts if they didn’t earn their spot.


    The main problem I see is that if the final is on neutral ground there might not be much of a crowd :S

  • That someone could go straight from the pool stage into F4 was always a ridiculous idea and I'm glad they scrapped that. In theory, someone could win the Champions League having played just 8 matches, and that's just too little and devalues the whole competition.
    I'm glad there will be proper QFs and SFs, but I'm not too pleased with the concept of having 5 pools with 4 teams. Four pools with five teams would have made for a much smoother transition into the QF stage.
    I don't know what to think about the neutral venue for the final. Home and away format does not fit volleyball too well and having the 2nd match of the final turn into a foregone conclusion halfway through it would not be a good look. On the other hand, there's always a risk of not having enough crowd interest in a neutral venue, and playing the most important match of the competition in a half-empty hall would obviously be a disaster. We'll see.


    Still, no format restructuring can fix the main problem of European club volleyball at the moment - and that is that outside Turkey and Italy, the level is just too low. Their top clubs are head and shoulders above everyone else and it seems like it won't change any time soon.

  • At least CEV has recognised that CL the way it has been so far was going downhill, many clubs didn't want to play anymore etc, but I'm not sure if they drew the right conclusions. I still wonder how they're going to get the 20 teams together because as Joana said, outside of Italy and Turkey plus let's say two Russian top clubs maybe, who has a serious chance of getting anywhere? And why would teams from Germany, France, Czech Republic etc bother to pay loads of money knowing they won't get past the preliminaries anyway? I really wonder if they have found ways to make competing in CL cheaper and more interesting for "smaller" teams, because as long as that doesn't happen, nothing of the basic problems is going to change.

  • I am actually happy with the change! My friends love men's volleyball and I attended F4 for men so far though I love women's volleyball :D Now we can see both! Yay! :super:

  • Any idea about how the ranking will be for other european cups? I hope they fuse CEV cup and Challenge cup and make a group stage there too.