There’s no place like POLAND aka VOLLEYLAND!
To round out the programme of the XXXV CEV General the organisers of future European Championships on schedule for 2016 and 2017 were announced to the attendees of the summit held at the Kempinski Hotel – The Dome in Antalya, Turkey. If Poland will host the 2017 edition of the men’s tournament thereby continuing a tradition that has seen this country turn itself into a Volleyball “Mecca”, Azerbaijan and Georgia will add another chapter to the history of European Volleyball by hosting the 2017 women’s European Championship. The date and venue of next year’s Congress – which will be an elective one – were also confirmed. The XXXVI CEV General Assembly will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 16-17, 2015.
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CEV President André Meyer opened the last session of this year’s Congress by recalling a decision made by the CEV Board of Administration to open in the coming weeks the bidding process for the 2019 and 2021 editions of the European Championships, thereby providing the eventual organisers with more time to prepare for hosting such high-fly events.
2016 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women
The Championship will be co-hosted by Slovakia and Hungary, with the Pool phase to be played in the cities of Nitra and Györ. The Slovak city of Nitra which boasts a multi-functional sports arena will play host also to all final and classification matches. Nitra is a place which is well-known on the Volleyball map and only a couple of months ago it hosted the Final Round of the 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship – Men together with the Czech city of Brno. After Serbia won the 2014 edition last August in Tartu, the next European champions of this age group will be crowned at the end of the competition running from August 27 through to September 4, 2016.
2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship – Men Organiser still to be determined
2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women Organiser still to be determined
2017 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men
The national federations of Hungary and Slovakia will join forces also to organise the 2017 edition of the CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men. The venues will be Györ and Puchov in Hungary and Slovakia, respectively, with the final stages of the competition to be played in Györ. The city of Györ hosts a multi-functional sports arena with a capacity of 2,000 seats and together with Puchov will provide the ideal stage for tomorrow’s stars of European Volleyball to shine and start their rise to the top. The 2017 European champions of this age group will be crowned on April 30, 2017 in Györ – a city which will host that same year also the European Youth Olympic Festival and is well-known for a very competitive women’s handball team. The Championship will be an opportunity to raise the profile of Volleyball in that neighbourhood.
2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women
Azerbaijan and Georgia will welcome Europe’s flagship event for the first time in history, with the competition stopping in Baku and Guba (Azerbaijan) as well as in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Azerbaijan has become a real Volleyball “Mecca” with teams from Baku having become a force to be reckoned with in all European Cups competitions and the women’s national team having participated in the last editions of the European and World Champs. Volleyball is growing fast also in Georgia, where the Championship will stop only two years after Tbilisi hosts next year’s European Youth Olympic Festival.
2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Men
The major Championship for men’s national teams will be held in Poland, a country that has been nicknamed “Volleyland” following the terrific success of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship Poland 2014. The Polish Volleyball Federation has proposed six cities – Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Lodz, Katowice, Krakow, and Wroclaw – and four will eventually be chosen to host the Championship. Each one of these cities boasts world-class venues and thousands of fans are expected to flock to the arenas similarly to what happened only a few weeks with the men’s World Championship where the men in red and white jerseys seized the title for the second time in their history. Poland’s last and only gold medal at the Men’s European Championship dates back to the 2009 edition held in Turkey. Polish Volleyball Federation and CEV Vice President Miroslaw Przedpelski revealed plans to host the final match at Warsaw National Stadium which hosted the opening match of this year’s World Champs with a record-breaking crowd of more than 61,000 in attendance.
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final
As already announced last year, the 2016 edition of the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final will be held in the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne, only a few weeks before the 2016 Olympics take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The bilingual city of Biel/Bienne played host to a Masters Tournament already this summer, and another one will follow in 2015 before the real climax is reached with the Championship scheduled for 2016. Though an alpine country, Switzerland has a long tradition in Beach Volleyball and even though some legendary players such as Martin Laciga, Sascha Heyer and Patrick Heuscher retired after the 2012 Olympics in London, the future looks bright with Swiss teams having medalled at many age-group Championships lately. The lakeside venue will be right place for the best players in Europe to shine with a lot of side events on schedule as well.
CEV Embraces Social Media
CEV goes social! The launch of the CEV Facebook page and Twitter account was one of the main highlights on the agenda as the XXXV CEV General Assembly continued on Saturday morning at the Kempinski Hotel – The Dome in Antalya, Turkey. Europe’s Volleyball family follows in the footsteps of other sports organisations and will from now on extend its communication activities to two of the main social networks, with a YouTube channel set to follow soon once the 2015 edition of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League gets underway in about 10 days.
Click here for the CEV Facebook Page
Click here to open the CEV Twitter Account
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On behalf of the CEV Communications Department, CEV Press Officer Federico Ferraro introduced representatives of as many as 48 national federations to the CEV social media campaign which is expected to reach out to a larger audience than the actual CEV website, with a focus on the young generations. CEV President André Meyer eventually released live on stage the first tweet available on the CEVolleyball account. The launch of the social media accounts was accompanied by the hashtag #CEVgoessocial and marks the start of a totally different era in the way the European Confederation engages with fans and all members of its Volleyball family.
A series of hashtags will follow soon to enhance the promotion of all CEV competitions and events, as the social media campaign will gain momentum after its launch at the CEV General Assembly. One of the core products and most innovative contents that will be made available to Volleyball fans and media alike are the Stars in Motion videos. This exclusive video content will be released once the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League gets started in early November. The fans will be able to retrieve this content on the CEV official Facebook page and Twitter account, as well as on the upcoming YouTube channel, and will be invited to circulate it among their contacts to spread around images of the terrific Volleyball show that goes along with this elite competition.
“We would like everyone here and those following us from home and anywhere in the world to check our social media accounts; follow us, re-tweet us and like us,” CEV President André Meyer said. “We want to reach out to a global audience and to anyone who is fond of our sport to create a community, which will be mesmerised by the content that we are just about to produce and release. Please stay tuned and continue to follow us! This is just the starting point of a very exciting journey”.
CEV & Mikasa Together For 4 More Years
The European Volleyball Confederation and Mikasa Corporation announced on Friday the extension of their partnership for another four years, up to 2020. This way the governing body for Volleyball in Europe and the Japanese leading manufacturer will continue their cooperation for the good of the sport for another four years. The agreement was signed on Friday in a special ceremony held before the dinner offered by Mikasa to all delegates attending the XXXV CEV General Assembly in Antalya, Turkey.
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“Mikasa is a long-term partner of our Volleyball family and we are pleased with the extension of our partnership for another four years,” CEV President André Meyer said. “This agreement follows a couple of milestones which have marked the last few months of our cooperation. I would start by recalling that he innovative MVA200CEV, the very first volleyball specifically designed for a continental competition, was officially unveiled last June at the European Volleyball Gala. In about ten days this ball will turn into one of the trademarks of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League and with its innovative look and feel it will help us spread the message of our “Green Way” campaign. Mikasa has been at our side from the very beginning of this action supporting our efforts as we continue to strive for innovation and excellence.”
The extended cooperation with Mikasa will also include the organisation of the CEV Beach Volleyball Summer Festivals with 13 events that were held this summer and more to come in the near future. “Mikasa is the partner everyone would wish to have as they help us raise the profile of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball to new heights when it comes to elite sport but at the same time they also share our attention and concern for their development at the grass-roots level, with a primary focus on those countries where there is still much room for improvement. We will continue to work hard and together will pursue another era of success for our sport,” the CEV President added.
“Mikasa Corporation is extremely honoured with the extension of our partnership with the CEV and with the opportunity to support their Volleyball and Beach Volleyball events as well as the long-term growth of the sport in Europe by providing everyone involved with the right products to play Volleyball and Beach Volleyball,” Daisuke Akiyama, Mikasa General Manager & Corporate Officer said.
“To further grow Volleyball and Beach Volleyball in Europe, Mikasa would like to use this opportunity to start liaising with National Federations from countries where we do not have any distributors yet, with a focus on our kids Volleyball programme, which is based on our innovative SKV5 volleyball, which has been designed specifically for kids and to accompany their first steps into the sport. Of course we would like to do the same also with our current distributors and their respective National Federations so that everyone involved in the sport will eventually join this action. We are convinced that this approach which goes straight at the grass-roots level will help us lay the foundations for a long-term growth and development of Volleyball in Europe. Together with the CEV we will continue to work hard and strive for more excellence,” Mr Akiyama concluded.
Click here to read more about The GREEN WAY Campaign.