UNPREDICTABLE OUTCOME IN ALL POOLS

Indesit European Champions' League 2005/06

CEV President Mr. André Meyer presenting the IECL 2005/06 Drawing of Lots

Indesit European Champions League 2005/06

Vienna, Austria, August 12, 2005. The Drawing of Lots for the sixth edition of the Indesit European Champions’ League 2005/06 has concluded tonight in Vienna’s town hall under the auspices of CEV President Mr. André Meyer, European Cups Commission President Mrs. Riet Ooms, the deputy mayor of Vienna Mrs. Grete Laska as well as the representatives of all participating clubs in the world’ strongest club competition and hundred other volleyball enthusiasts.

Working together with the CEV on the organisation and procedure of the entire gala evening for over ten years now Mrs. Grete Laska, who herself used to be an active volleyball player before she became responsible for sports in the City of Vienna, was more than content stating that “each year the drawing of lots presentations become more interesting and better organised.”

Starting off the presentation by welcoming the almost 500 guests CEV President Mr. André Meyer also seemed happy with the entire celebration, stating that the pools in the men’s as well as the women’s League Round promise some very exciting preliminary battles. “The drawing of lots has been excellently organised”, he quoted following the official presentation, “and the final drawing of the pools couldn’t be any better. Each team should be satisfied with their opponents. In the men’s we have four very combative pools where one can impossibly predict who might qualify for the subsequent round. In the women’s, Pool B might seem a little stronger as they have at least four teams of a very high level, whilst in Pool A I would rate three teams as favourites. However, it will be very interesting to see which one of the challenging clubs will make it to the Playoff Round.” Later on in the evening Mr. André Meyer was honoured by Mikasa receiving a special doll (see picture gallery).

Austrian TV presenter Mr. Edy Finger, Vienna's deputy mayor Mrs. Grete Laska and CEV Vice President Mrs. Riet Ooms

Pool A of the men’s competition is composed of 2004/05 Indesit European Champions' League Vice Champion Iraklis THESSALONIKI from Greece, the 2003/04 Austrian Airlines Top Teams Cup titleholder Knack Randstad ROESELARE (BEL), Austrian Champion Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK, Spanish Unicaja ALMERIA as well as Dutch Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande who were defeated by Olympiacos PIRAEUS in the final of last year’s Top Teams Cup in the famous Peace & Friendship stadium in Athens, Greece. “We have a mainly Western European pool where most of the teams are familiar to us”, commented ROTTERDAM’s head coach Mr. Peter Blangé, a former best setter for the Dutch national team, “the curious thing is that we’ll meet some of the Dutch national team players who play for the opposition. Whilst Nico Freriks plays for Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK, Mike Van de Goor and the head coach of Unicaja ALMERIA are Dutch. Thus, I’m sure that these matches will guarantee sold out competition halls.” The President of Belgian club Knack Randstad ROESELARE Mr. Daniel Van den Berghe was content with the final drawing, in particular with the fact that the opponent clubs are all not too far away from Belgium. “I consider Iraklis THESSALONIKI as top club in our pool, but still I reckon that every team is beatable”, he expressed.

The opinions of the responsible people of the Pool B clubs were less optimistic with each interviewee admitting to the strong level of their opponent teams and the difficult task of reaching one of the first three places in order to qualify for the playoffs. “It will be a real challenge to defend our title looking at the teams in Pool B”, declared the Organisation Director of 2004/05 titleholder TOURS VB Mr. Jean Michel Barre, “the only unknown team for us is Czech club volleyball.cz KLADNO but from experience I can say that teams from the Czech Republic are always strong and can always be counted on as tough opposition.” Mr. Stelian Moculescu, head coach of the German VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN and German national team coach, commented briefly that “we were once again lucky to have fallen into the strongest pool. It will be very challenging for us to reach the Playoff Round, however, I’m very happy for our fans in Friedrichshafen who will definitely experience wonderful volleyball games.” The President of Greek Olympiacos PIRAEUS Mr. Leonidas Theodorakakis agrees on the difficulty of reaching the Playoff Round from Pool B but is optimistic that his team will finish amongst the three best.

Host of the drawing of lots, Austrian National Federation President and President of the Aon hotVolleys VIENNA Mr. Peter Kleinmann describes Pool C as very attractive indeed. Whilst he reckons to be able to beat French AS CANNES as well as Sisley TREVISO with a newly composed VIENNA formation, he is also happy not to be in Pool D, as they have travelled sufficiently to Eastern Europe in the past IECL editions.

Except Italian EMU RPA PERUGIA the remaining four Pool D teams come from Eastern Europe, namely 2002/03 and 2003/04 IECL Champion Lokomotiv BELGOROD (RUS), SKRA BELCHATOW (POL), Levski Siconco SOFIA (BUL), and Buducnost PODGORICKA Banka (SCG). “In my opinion Pool B is the strongest but our opponents are also of a strong calibre”, thought EMU RPA PERUGIA Organisation Director Ms. Federica Mori.

The almost 500 guests enjoyed the special gala evening in Vienna's city hall

With the women’s competition being composed of merely two pools chances to fall against any favourite teams or to avoid playing the strongest teams are meager. Defending Champion Foppapedretti BERGAMO from Italy won’t have an easy task, meeting two-time IECL champion RC CANNES (FRA), 2002/03 Vice Champion NTMK EKATERINBURG (RUS) as well as two-time Final Four participant Eczacibasi ISTANBUL from Turkey. “Due to the fact that there are six teams in each pool any final drawing would have resulted as interesting”, stated EKATERINBURG’s Organisation Director Ms. Nadia Karpol, “Anyhow, we need to stay focused against every single opponent in order to qualify for the next stage.” It remains to be seen how Spain’s Hotel Cantur LAS PALMAS and Portuguese CAT TROFA resist against these big names.

Leading teams in Pool B are Spain’s TENERIFE Marichal, IECL titleholder 2003/04, Italian Pallavolo Sirio PERUGIA who won the CEV Cup last year, Top Teams Cup winner 2001/02 Azerrail BAKU, as well as Turkish Günes Vakifbank ISTANBUL, winner of the women’s Top Teams Cup 2003/04. “I would have preferred to play BERGAMO than PERUGIA and EKATERINBURG to BAKU, but a strong team has to demonstrate to be able to beat every other team so it doesn’t really matter who you are finally drawn against”, expressed Mr. Plamen Takev, the Organisation Director of TENERIFE Marichal. For the Azerbaijan European Cups Responsible Mr. Zohrab Gozalbayli it makes no difference against whom you play: “If you want to win the Champions’ League you need to be able to beat every team. Our aim is to continue the success of the Azerbaijan national team, which means for Azerrail BAKU to reach the final of the IECL.” Thus, Mladost ZAGREB from Croatia and Polish Calisia KALISZ will have a hard time competing for the top three spots.

In the men’s Indesit European Champions’ League the League Round is composed of four groups of five teams each. Following the preliminary pool play and the appointment of the organiser of the Final Round the best 12 teams proceed to the Playoff Round from which the six winners have to qualify in the Playoff for six teams for the three vacant places in the Final Four. The League Round of the women’s Indesit European Champions’ League will be played in two pools of six teams each where only the best six teams will qualify for the Playoff Round. The Final Four of the men's as well as the women’s competition are both scheduled for March 2005.

To view the picture gallery please click here.

To download the special 10th edition of the CEV e-News on the IECL 200506 Drawing of Lots please click the icon below. Further CEV e-Newsletters can be downloaded from this webpage www.cev.lu / MEDIA.

e-News no.10

Spanish singer Sandra Pires showed off her beautiful voice to the several guests

Results Drawing of Lots Indesit European Champions’ League 2005/06

Men’s Pool A
Iraklis THESSALONIKI (GRE)
Knack Randstad ROESELARE (BEL)
Hypo Tirol INNSBRUCK (AUT)
Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande (NED)
Unicaja ALMERIA (ESP)

Men’s Pool B
VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (GER)
TOURS VB (FRA)
Olympiacos PIRAEUS (GRE)
volleyball.cz KLADNO (CZE)
Dinamo MOSCOW (RUS)

Men’s Pool C
AS CANNES (FRA)
Sisley TREVISO (ITA)
evivo DüREN (GER)
Noliko MAASEIK (BEL)
Aon hotVolleys VIENNA (AUT)

Men’s Pool D
Lokomotiv BELGOROD (RUS)
EMU RPA PERUGIA (ITA)
SKRA BELCHATOW (POL)
Levski Siconco SOFIA (BUL)
Buducnost PODGORICKA Banka (SCG)

Women’s Pool A
Foppapedretti BERGAMO (ITA)
RC CANNES (FRA)
Hotel Cantur LAS PALMAS (ESP)
Uralochka NTMK EKATERINBURG (RUS)
CAT TROFA (POR)
Eczacibasi ISTANBUL (TUR)

Women’s Pool B
Pallavolo Sirio PERUGIA (ITA)
TENERIFE Marichal (ESP)
Vakifbank Günes ISTANBUL (TUR)
Azerrail BAKU (AZE)
Mladost ZAGREB (CRO)
Calisia KALISZ (POL)

Schedule Indesit European Champions’ League 2005/06
October 2005 - January 2006: League Round
February 2006: Play-off Round
March 2006: Final Four

Confédération Européenne de Volleyball

UNPREDICTABLE OUTCOME IN ALL POOLS

Indesit European Champions' League 2005/06