CEV Cup 2019

    As expected a very close race of Salo vs. Asterix: the guests started better in first set with notable lead, but Salo leveled and built up an own small advantage, than Asterix leveled and after 23:23 Salo could manage to win the first set 25:23. (is shown on laola1.tv)

    Captain Celine van Gestel destroyed Salos reception in the midth of third set with her service. The middles of Asterix are both effective in blocking as fast attack and Salo lost completely the rhythm.

    Main differences in favour of Asterix AVO Beveren (formerly Kieldrecht): 15 to 9 kill blocks and a whole lot more errors by Salo. The attack efficiency was nearly the same; while Asterix made much more aces, they produced also many more service errors.

    Quote from Matthias

    I wonder who is that lucky person who bet a lot of money on the Norwegian club and is a millionaire now :whistle: This is just too suspicious to not have some dirty background. No team travels with just 6 players, Norway isn't Vladivostok and Saint Raphael is not some poor club from a small country :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:

    Well, it should not, at least in theory, be possible to bet a wide amount of money on these kind of matches. For the CEV Cup, and other smaller markets with a lower turnover-rate, the limit is severely restricted for people to invest in all the games involved. The maximum neat profit you can make while betting on a certain team to win the match is generelly hovering around the range between 200-500 euro, depending a bit on which bookmaker who provides the odds. Subsequently, for someone to make a massive fortune on this particular event would demand something extraordinary, a comprehensively organized plot with a lot of actors involved in order to circumvent the usual constraints. Simply, hardly anyone would alone, with just one account, be able to generate such profit on a single game in that context, they would need to come over some proxy accounts, usually through a purchase for some hundred euros per person, and let them give their details up on their behalf.

    I'm sure that a huge bet on an obscure women's volleyball match would raise a lot of eyebrows, and the circumstances regarding its outcome would be more than enough to start an investigation. It would probably all unravel rather quickly and I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.


    I think it's more likely that Saint Raphael is struggling financially (apparently they only have 11 players on their roster), didn't think an amateur team from Norway would cause them any problems, so they wanted to cut the costs as much as possible and didn't bring in any substitutes hoping no one would get injured.

    Of course, it's still extremely unprofessional, irresponsible and disrespectful to their opponents, the competition they were playing in and the game of volleyball itself, and they deserve a heavy fine.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    I'm sure that a huge bet on an obscure women's volleyball match would raise a lot of eyebrows, and the circumstances regarding its outcome would be more than enough to start an investigation. It would probably all unravel rather quickly and I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.


    I think it's more likely that Saint Raphael is struggling financially (apparently they only have 11 players on their roster), didn't think an amateur team from Norway would cause them any problems, so they wanted to cut the costs as much as possible and didn't bring in any substitutes hoping no one would get injured.

    Of course, it's still extremely unprofessional, irresponsible and disrespectful to their opponents, the competition they were playing in and the game of volleyball itself, and they deserve a heavy fine.

    This is not the case, unfortunalety. A lot of money is pouring in, for example, week after week in the Serbian womens league, and thus creates odd or weird movements as a result of that, but I would be very surprised in case hardly any of them have become a subject to an investigation afterwards. I do not claim those matches are necessarily rigged by definition or so, probably a lot of them are still not since they could arise by natural reasons as well as you mention, but the movements are so wild and frequent there they provide with sufficient ground to believe some actually are and thus it justifies the action to examine them further and expect some verdicts as well. In a romainian newspaper it was not so long time ago reported 100+ games had suspicious movements on a short span of time, like a couple of years or so. Still, even though some of them are actually investigated its rare they actually leads to anything, i.e a prosecution of some sort. The ratio of unsolved cases here must be equivalent to what it is for a small-scale crime such as low-degree theft. I regard, judging from the statistics, the domain of match-fixing as a kind of "safe heaven" in sports in general and that female volley isnt a specific exception to the rule. The match fixers have the same kind of refuge in female volleyball as Al-Qaida, according to the U.S, had in Afghanistan before the 9/11. This is only my opinion though.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    I'm sure that a huge bet on an obscure women's volleyball match would raise a lot of eyebrows, and the circumstances regarding its outcome would be more than enough to start an investigation. It would probably all unravel rather quickly and I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.


    I think it's more likely that Saint Raphael is struggling financially (apparently they only have 11 players on their roster), didn't think an amateur team from Norway would cause them any problems, so they wanted to cut the costs as much as possible and didn't bring in any substitutes hoping no one would get injured.

    Of course, it's still extremely unprofessional, irresponsible and disrespectful to their opponents, the competition they were playing in and the game of volleyball itself, and they deserve a heavy fine.

    As far as I know (and that is unless the rule has changed recently), CEV demands a minimum number of players registered for a match and has financial fines per every player less than that. So bringing only 6 players in the end would be as expensive as paying travel and hotel for 11 players I think...

    They did register 11 players - as evidenced on the CEV's website. However, only 6 of them actually showed up to play. Now, I don't know how that is regulated. I'm not sure you must bring all your registered players, surely there has to be some kind of provision in the case of a last minute injury or something like that?

    But even if that was technically allowed, it's clear that Saint Raphael was abusing the rules to the maximum. It would be outrageous if they were allowed to host the next match, win 3-0 like expected and progress further.

    The final roster for the match has to be submitted 24 hours before the match, and I can imagine that there are rules for last minute injuries, but definitely not for five of them...

    I'm also curious what CEV intends to do about that...

    Quote from JoanaBG

    They did register 11 players - as evidenced on the CEV's website. However, only 6 of them actually showed up to play. Now, I don't know how that is regulated. I'm not sure you must bring all your registered players, surely there has to be some kind of provision in the case of a last minute injury or something like that?

    But even if that was technically allowed, it's clear that Saint Raphael was abusing the rules to the maximum. It would be outrageous if they were allowed to host the next match, win 3-0 like expected and progress further.

    It takes two hours to arrive in Norway from France by airplane or a helicopter, perhaps they estimated they could hire a reserve by escorting her on a private flight straight after the need emerged while delaying the process by blaming stomach issues on the hitherto non-existent substitute. Just kidding.

    There are two different numbers: the players you register for the competition (minimum required 12 for CL, 11 for CEV Cup, up to 18 in CL possible) and the number you have to register for a special match - so far I known, the minimum is the very same, only the maximum for a match is limited to 12 with one libero respective 14 with two liberos, independent from the competition. As long a player can travel, nobody declines to register for a match and not using her/him. But I admit, that I have not read the complete regulation now and the frame may be different. Anyway, I expect some reaction by CEV for this bad approach by St.Raphael, especially because French volleyball federation/league is not one of the mighty ones (those are Italy, Russia, Turkey and Poland), so they can't hope to get away with this unpunished.

    Targoviste lost 3-0 from Stiinta Bacau. I think without Dimitrova are weaker than last year.


    In the first set they are playing good against Galata (20-19 for Galata).