Posts by StefanS

    To quote hhssslsaaazzzzz from the European League thread: Rebecca Lazic has ended her career, and Alexandra Lazic has opted out of the national team season for "personal reasons".

    And Alexandra Lazic is already 30 and might welcome some time of rest in the summer too, I guess.

    No Lazic?

    (Former) Junior NT coach Manuel Hartmann was announced as head coach of Binder Blaubären Flacht. IMO that's a slightly promising sign unless they spent half of their budget on him and have no money left for players...


    Erfurt announced CRO OPP Isabel Kovacic. Pia Mohr leaves Erfurt for Borken.

    I don't think, they will pay Hartmann very much, to be honest...

    In addition, they renamed into "ETV Hamburger Volksbank Volleys", so I suppose a large part of the budget is from the main sponsor. I hope they'll be able to build a somewhat decent team, looking at what Borken has got so far doesn't look like a Bundesliga team :gone:

    They are still searching for additional sponsors, what worked not out well for CU Aurubis more than a decade ago, but let's wait, what will happen.

    Okay, no bad performance of German team in light of absence or non usage of some stronger players (Orthmann, Weitzel), but Italy had even in this B-setting no good day anyway and Italian coach of German team challenged very well in fourth set, he seems to have great eyes (that block touch mistake was very well seen by him for example). Of course, when Italy brings back their stars, Germany will have no chance at all even with Orthmann, Kästner, Straube and so on.

    Somehow German team managed to win a set from Olympic champions Italy in their country, but I guess, the latter had near to no regular national players on court due to Final Four of CL, where the three top teams of A1participated.

    Yes, the International Handball Federation or IHF is almost certainly even more corrupt than both CEV and FIVB. Hassan Moustafa, the current president of IHF and nicknamed The Pharao, has been in charge since 2000, and thus been the boss for 25 years in a row. While formally not a dictator, he has won the last three elections without any challenging candidates whatsoever and virtually anyone with insight into the election process grasp its rigged in advance.

    Yes, another sports expert (especially for handball) confirmed to me, that this federation is also corrupt - and there is more money in play overall as in volleyball I think.

    Don't be naive... It's not a question of merit, but only of money: they bought the fourth place with cash...

    The credibility of the CEV and also of volleyball in general, are at really low levels...

    In football, as in other sports, they at least try to save face, but like this, they are going well below any minimum level of decency...

    All international sports federations are corrupt, and volleyball is explicitly no exception (valid both for FIVB and CEV).

    Dresden will present two more prolongations today. I guess it's Fijok and maybe Winter or one of the MBs.

    By the way: Dresden will have less money for their squad next season and therefore plan with 12 players. So probably with just Nestler as libero. They hope to get a 13th player later if the financial situation allows them to do so.

    While it is allowed by CEV to participate in CL with just 12 players, it is clearly not recommended (better have a full 14 or extended up to 18 roaster).

    When was the last time Stuttgart miss cl?:white: is there any chance they will join at the least qualification rounds? On the other hand, Their roster for next year is not really cl-worthy anyways

    Stuttgart lost German final series to Dresden 2021 and German VBL had just one berth in CL, they played CEV cup in season 2022 and lost the final matches than to Eczacibasi Istanbul. And remember in ko round of last 16 Stuttgart lost 2025 overall clearly against Rzeszow, no more being one of the best 8 teams in Europe.

    After all decisions in (relevant) national championships relevant for CL are now known, here follow the qualified teams for the competition as usual:


    Italy: Conegliano (Champion and league round winner), Milano (runner up), Scandicci (third of league round and semi final participant)

    Turkey: VakifBank (Champion), Fenerbahce (runner-up) and Eczacibasi (winner of Bronze medal series)

    Poland: Rzeszow (Champion), LKS Commercecon Lodz (runner up) and Grot Budowlani Lodz (winner of Bronze medal series)


    (Russia: still banned (would be otherwise champion Kaliningrad and runner up Kazan))

    Germany: Schwerin (champion) and Dresden (runner up)

    France: Paris and Nantes (finalists)


    Ukraine: ??? (likely again no participant)

    Serbia: Zeleznicar (champion), runner up Ub could be a candidate too

    Romania: Alba Blaj (Champion), if eligible and willing (a ban a few years ago, can they afford it?)


    Qualification: they can apply as national champions even from leagues lower in ranking. Succession rule of CEV? I don't know (because of Russia and some not willing to take their formal spots it's important).

    Formally Flacht was better than Hamburg in the final ranking of second Pro :) (6. and 7.).

    Conegliano is still the clear cut favorite for the victory IMHO. After the last results I expect VakifBank to join the finals in another Conegliano-VakifBank battle, but anyway the Panthers are set to win.

    De Paula, Martin, Grote, Varela, Koulberg, Mottis plus their own youngsters Slacanin and Steinhilber all are still fairly young, plus after the Siftar disaster they might be cautious about young prospects :whistle: But yes, it's not an impressive roster. However for a final judgement we need to see what kind of roster the main contenders are going to build.

    Yes, wait, how bad the roasters of Schwerin and Dresden will be - the downgrade of the leagues seems to continue.