CEV Champions League 2019

    Quote from JoanaBG

    I don't feel like opening a new thread for this, so I may as well post it here. Stav Jacobi (the owner of Volero) has founded a new organization - the Association of Professional Volleyball Clubs (ACPV), which you can read about here. According to information in Serbian media, his ultimate goal is to create a closed basketball-style Euroleague where the top 12 strongest/richest clubs would have a guaranteed place through contracts.

    So far, the answer from both the CEV and the FIVB has been a firm no, as one might expect. But things could get interesting over the next few years. I really don't think the current CL format is sustainable in the long run.

    I think Stav's goal is to make money from ACPV. He is a businessman after all. It's understandable that CEV and FIVB won't compromise, or they will lose the market.


    For those who like ACPV over current CEV/CL, could you explain in details why ACPV is better? Only 12 teams play in a closed league, would you think it's kind of boring? Soccer is a much bigger market, but we still see a lot of teams take part in CL each year.

    Quote from kyle7in1

    For those who like ACPV over current CEV/CL, could you explain in details why ACPV is better? Only 12 teams play in a closed league, would you think it's kind of boring? Soccer is a much bigger market, but we still see a lot of teams take part in CL each year.

    The problem with the CL is that only a handful of the teams can actually compete at that level and there are lots of matches where we pretty much know the winner before it begins.


    For many years football was very unpredictable between the top teams in Europe. It's only really within the last decade that we see all the same names winning and making the later stages of the CL as the rich clubs get richer and richer. There is a growing push for a European Super League in that sport as well, the only reason it hasn't happened yet is that there are millions of European football fans that love supporting their team in the CL who would probably not watch a Super League if their team was barred from entering.


    The other key fact about football is that it's very lucrative even just to qualify for the CL. The clubs can make an obscene amount of money even if they lose every game due to TV rights, attendance etc. Sadly this just doesn't happen in volleyball and I think for most clubs they're actually losing money from playing the CL.


    Having said all that, I don't necessarily think the ACPV is better because I think a closed league is a bit unfair on other teams and I don't want to see the best teams continue to get stronger and stronger and move further away from the competition. I can see both sides of this.

    Maybe having ACPV + a qualifying/2nd division to that could be an option, that way bad teams will leave and new and promising teams will still have enough motivation.


    Seems perfect ofc but I'm not a specialist for these kinds of things so its not that practical maybe? Or as easy as it sounds.


    If it is... Then this over CL any day, CL doesnt make volleyball grow as a sport. Euroleague did just that for basketball in Europe.


    Edit: + having a league thats competitive for 2nd tier clubs (who sometimes play in mediocre/bad divisions) could actually drastically improve them

    Quote from kyle7in1

    For those who like ACPV over current CEV/CL, could you explain in details why ACPV is better? Only 12 teams play in a closed league, would you think it's kind of boring? Soccer is a much bigger market, but we still see a lot of teams take part in CL each year.

    It doesn't mean that there would be only 12 teams in the league. From what I understand, those 12 teams would have a fixed place in the league regardless of their ranking in their national competitions, while the rest would have to earn their place some other way, either through their national championships or qualifying rounds.


    The main problem with the basketball system is that it's too long and after a while a lot of matches are essentially meaningless as the teams have lost their chances to progress further. I agree with Janko there.

    On the other hand, CL as is it now is simply a joke (though the system they designed this year is slightly better than the previous, but still not enough). Look at Vakifbank's group this year. VB can basically sleepwalk through all of their matches.

    The biggest problem is that the really top teams are very few and the gap between them and the mid-level teams is huge. That's something the new league would not be able to solve either, but at least it would help concentrate the quality in the same place instead of diluting it.


    But here's the thing and the main difference from basketball: basketball doesn't really have a NT season the way volleyball does. There's just one major tournament in late summer, and that's it. While for top volleyball players, the season never really ends. As soon as they're done with their clubs, they join their NTs, and by the time NT competitions are over, the club season is about to start.

    This new league would mean an additional number of matches played throughout the club season, which would then mean that either the season will have to expanded or there will need to be a break between the end of the club season and the start of the NT season.

    So far there's no indication the FIVB is willing to make any sort of compromise (look at their utterly unreasonable 2019 NT competitions calendar, for example) and THAT is something that will start causing problems very soon, I'm completely sure.

    Quote from Helios

    I just found something interesting.


    The newly launched EuroVolleyTV is created by Sportradar. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Sportradar has already acquired the core business of Sportman Media Holding, including Laola1.at and Laola1.tv, in 2016.


    Therefore, I guess there will be no more CL live on Laola1.

    i want to cry but i wont!!!!! :mad:

    Quote from Helios

    I just found something interesting.


    The newly launched EuroVolleyTV is created by Sportradar. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Sportradar has already acquired the core business of Sportman Media Holding, including Laola1.at and Laola1.tv, in 2016.


    Therefore, I guess there will be no more CL live on Laola1.

    I remember laola1 offers two options for viewers. You can watch the game for free, but no backward option while watching the live stream. For premium members who pay the monthly fee, you can enjoy all streaming options, and with HD resolution. I don't mind paying a few bucks per month, if CEV can guarantee the streaming quality and allow us to download games we like.

    CL round 4 will start on Nov 20th, 2018. Here is the bracket.



    ECZ, Vakif and Novara should win the game if no drama. Two games are worth watching in this round. Imoco vs Scandicci. Although Imoco is the top dog, Scandicci won't surrender easily. Another game is Dinamo vs Fener. The winner probably nails the 1st place of Pool E.

    So right from the start 2 most interesting games in Group stage...Imoco should win (if they don't rest players), and the other match will depend on how Fener serves.

    poor Scandiccci..not easy for them to start their CL campaign with Conegliano match


    Dinamo - Fener match will be nice..i expect a tough match..Fener's reception looked shaky against GS in the league so it will be a tough match for both teams' passers :lol:

    Regarding the plans of Jacobi: of course there is a huge difference of top teams to the others in CL now - effectively you have each three teams of Turkey, Italy and Russia competing on high level and the others are much weaker (maybe Ekaterinburg from Russia is not as strong, but superleague results suggest not to underrate them). Even Chemik Police or CSM Bukarest pose no real threat to them... if Jacobi can gain money out of this format, he will finance Volero again much more and make them competetive. So a number of 12 teams is not too far-fetched, there is also Galatasaray Istanbul... I think, the big European federations (essentially Turkey, Italy, Russia and Poland) will pressure the CEV to change some things, otherwise they could indeed found their own special league and ruin the CEV CL format.

    Tomorrow are the first three matches of pool stage:


    Kazan vs. Hämeenlinna is a joke, the Finnish defending champions are rather weak this season


    LKS Commercecon LODZ vs. SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN : the German champion is slightly favoured


    Béziers vs. Maritsa PLOVDIV is hard to rate, I suppose the last/Bulgarian champions as favourite, despite the bookmakers have Béziers with the better value: Béziers is considerably weaker than last season and Plovdiv is fairly good I think. But this last match will be especially balanced, I guess.

    Plovdiv should be a force, yes. They have a good setter in Weiss, a nice blocking-duo in Jennifer Cross and Nasya Dimitrova, a reliable opposite in Alexandra Holston as well as two solid wingers in Dimitrova and Paskova. This should be a competitive team considering the fact they really do look stronger now than last year, when they still managed to prevail over Enisey Krasnoyarsk in the final CEV CL qualification round back then. For Beziers, I do not see anything special here, neither in relation to their results so far in their domestic league nor in terms of their material individually. They have accumulated losses against Nantes as well as Paris so far in France, both teams hardly even sufficient to be competitive neither on CEV CL nor CEV Cup level.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    Sport Klub 2 will show Dinamo vs Fenerbahce on Wednesday, so there should definitely be a stream for that. Unfortunately, it's the only match of this round they have on their schedule. I hoped there would be more.

    All the matches will be streamed by the most well-known bookmakers such as Bet365, at least it is the information that has been announced on their respective sites.