Let’s face it, the Russian Super League is ONE OF THE BEST professional leagues in the world right now in terms of competition level and the world class players in the league like Sergey Tetyukhin, Dmitriy Muserskiy, Gyorgy Grozer, Michal Winiarski, Matt Anderson, Nikola Grbic, Jan Stokr, Dragan Travica and many more.
Deputy General Director of the Volleyball Federation of Russia Mikhail Podlozny talks about the changes that were made in the formula of the Russian Superliga to let Belogorie BELGOROD participate in the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship, about the dismissal of Ukraine’s Lokomotiv KHARKIV from the championship of Russia and shares his experience in organizing international tournaments in Russia.
About changes in the Russian championship’s playoffs formula
Why was a decision to change the calendar of the Russian championship in order to allow for a probable participation of Russian teams in the Club World Championship not made immediately after FIVB’s decision to hold the competition in May? Was this not based on the assumption that the Russian teams would not win the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League?
You caught our reasons just right. We did not change the schedule, because Belogorie could have lost the Champions League. Volleyball is an unpredictable game, we could have lost the final match, and, then, for what reason would we have changed everything around our championship finals? We were thinking realistically. We could not change anything before Belogorie won the Champions League and announced its will to take part in the World Championship.
In general, I think, FIVB’s decision to hold the competition in May was correct. Before that, our teams were arriving at the Club World Championship totally disassembled. There was only a week’s gap between the return of the clubs’ international players and the beginning of the tournament. It was impossible to train or to rest in that amount of time. Today, when our team is prepared, I hope, that they will handle the time before tournament without any injuries and this year we would have an opportunity to win the Club World Championship.
Active debates were started around the federation’s proposed changes to the playoff formula. It was said, that medals would be contested in a Final Six format, with the first two teams from the preliminary stage ranking qualifying directly to the finals. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of this decision? In particular, how fair is a decision to hold the Final Six at a neutral venue?
We were placed in a very difficult situation. We should somehow end the championship to allow Belogorie to go to Brazil, where they have their first game on May 5. In addition, we should return players to the national team in time. We have Sbornaya’s first game already on May 29. Even if we could manage to end the championship on May 15, several players would not make it in time to the national team’s gathering on May 21. But if we end the championship on April 30, players would have some rest before the start of their international challenges, for the first time in many years.
This means that from the last round of the preliminary stage on April 12 we are left with 18-19 days to complete the playoffs. It is not possible to handle eightfinals, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals altogether within such a short period of time with any formula. So we are shortening the championship knowing what we are doing. Teams with ranks from 3 to 10 will play quarterfinal games, while the two best teams will qualify to the finals directly. Speaking of a neutral venue, of course, everything becomes complicated for the fans of the participating teams. But, at the same time, neither team will gain any advantages. If the Final Six was held at the home ground of any team, that team would gain a notable preference. Besides, volleyball lovers will receive a great gift, if the Final Six is held in their city.
Are all these changes already approved?
No, but the federation will make the final decision before April 4.
About Lokomotiv KHARKIV’s dismissal from the Russian championship
A very complicated political situation had formed in Ukraine and we were pushed to make extraordinary decisions. First, we transferred Lokomotiv’s game with Guberniya NIZHNIY NOVGOROD from Kharkiv to Nizhniy Novgorod. You must admit, we had our reasons to be afraid of further worsening of the situation in Ukraine. Besides, we received an official notification from the Ministry of Sports, recommending Russian athletes to refuse visiting Ukraine in March and April. You know that in the beginning of March it was absolutely unclear what was happening in the eastern part of Ukraine. After the situation in Kharkiv became worse, the team could not continue playing in the Russian championship for purely financial reasons. The club’s accounts were blocked and the team was not even able to buy transportation tickets. Lokomotiv’s administration sent us the official letter, thanked us for the admission to the world’s strongest championship and hoped for the further cooperation.
About holding international tournaments in Russia
Kaliningrad and Surgut were chosen to hold Russia’s home games in the first round of the FIVB Volleyball World League and not for the first time. What are the main advantages of these places? What are the mechanics of choosing the venues for Russian national team’s games in general? How important is the interest of local officials and volleyball clubs?
The main problem is that this year the FIVB has toughened the requirements for the teams in the highest group of the World League. The requirement for the hall’s capacity is a minimum of 6 thousand seats. Unfortunately, Russia has only several halls, which meet this requirement. Halls for volleyball and especially for volleyball with a capacity of 6 thousand are located also in Moscow and Krasnodar, but Krasnodar does not have any experience in holding that kind of tournaments. In Surgut the hall is very unusual, it is just a long hangar, if we are calling things by their names. But there we have great audience that every year literally overflows the hall. The hall will be upgraded this year and new stands will be installed. The place allows it. And there were some similar cases in international experience – Earls Court in London, for example, where the games of the Olympics were held, was an exhibition center with temporary stands. I am sure that Surgut will meet all the FIVB requirements as well. Another reason for choosing Surgut is the absolute support, including financial, of Khanty-Mansiysk region’s government and the volleyball club of Gazprom-Ugra SURGUT. Finally, volleyball in Surgut is overwhelmingly popular. People come to the stands without any advertising, and even with minimal info about the games the hall is overflowed.
Kaliningrad’s case is also a clear one. One of the best volleyball halls in the country is located there. We should not forget, that this enclave does not hold many world-level tournaments. Kaliningrad’s administration is always supporting us. For the city it is a very significant event.
You have an exceptional experience in organizing international tournaments in Russia. What are the problems that you usually encounter? Are there some persistent ones? What is, in your opinion, the overall level of organizing tournaments in Russia, compared to other leading volleyball countries? In which cases is Russia ahead of them, and where does it fall behind?
I cannot say that we fall behind. There will always be problems, but all of them are manageable. It is hard, of course, to compete with Poland and Brazil, speaking of the numbers of spectators. Volleyball is a number one sport in Poland, in Brazil – number two. In Russia, soccer and ice hockey are way more popular than volleyball. In some cases it is difficult for us to compete with basketball, but still we are beating them lately in the number of titles and prizes.
Speaking of organizing, every year the number of people in Russia who understand how to organize the tournaments and make them interesting for the fans is growing. Organizing consists of several components. It is not just the requirements of FIVB, it is also logistics and placing teams and officials. It is not so hard to combine everything, but one should certainly understand how all these things work. According to my experience, the problem with placing visiting teams, for example, becomes easier to handle each year, because new good hotels are showing up in Russia. It becomes easier to negotiate about prices. It is important to have a good team of managers by your side who understand what to do and how to do it.
We’d also like to add this statement by Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko on why the Russian Volleyball Program is very successful in the last few years:
“Look at the Russian volleyball, European Champions in both categories, winners of the CEV Champions League in both categories, Olympic gold in men’s volleyball… And all of that was achieved with the “two foreigners” rule in domestic championship. So other sports may take a look at how it’s supposed to be done and maybe copy something out of volleyball.”
Any Thoughts?
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