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PRESS CONFERENCE BEFORE START OF THE WOMEN’S INDESIT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2005
Women's Indesit European Championship 2005
Pula/Zagreb, Croatia, September 16,
2005. In view of the Women’s Indesit European Championship 2005 Final
Round which will kick off on Saturday with the first Preliminary Pool
matches in Pula and Zagreb (CRO), a press conference was held in Zagreb
on Friday at noon with CEV Vice President and Jury President Mrs. Riet
Ooms as well as Ms. Valentina Bifflin, General Secretary of the
Croatian Volleyball Federation and General Manager of the Organising
Committee presenting details on the organisation of the Women’s Indesit
European Championship 2005 to the attending journalists as well as
answering the several questions by press regarding the competition.
Mrs. Ooms opened the press conference thanking the Croatian
Volleyball Federation for investing a lot of resources into the
organisation, stating that she is more than satisfied with the results
achieved. The CEV Vice President, who was recently re-elected into the
CEV Board of Administration for the coming four years 2005-2009, hopes
that the running of the event will continue as successful with the aim
of achieving record results in terms of media accreditations,
television audience as well as spectator attendance as was the case
during the Men’s Indesit European Championship 2005 Final Round in Rome
(ITA) and Belgrade (SCG) one week ago. To view the corresponding news article please click here.
Ms. Bifflin was honoured by the nice words from Mrs. Ooms, putting the good quality work down to the numerous people involved in the organisation. Happy to have won the bid, the Croatian Volleyball Federation don’t want to disappoint, thus ensuring to continue providing the best service and work to make this Women’s Senior European Championship memorable in European Volleyball history. “I hope we will justify the trust the European Volleyball Confederation has laid into our organisation”, added Ms. Bifflin towards the end.
Currently, the number of accredited press people totals 225 from ten different countries. However, with the supplementary journalists joining for the Final Four weekend from 24th to 25th September 2005, the number of accredited press is bound to top the maximum number achieved in any European women’s competition up to date. Further, the number of interested television channels is increasing year by year. The TV schedule can be downloaded below in PDF format.
 Women's Indesit European Championship 2005: TV Schedule |
The 2005 Women’s Indesit European Championship could
be full of surprises as recent years have shown fluctuating results of
many national teams. Although Poland are the defending champion and
number nine in the world meeting 2003 bronze medallist and world number
ten Germany in Pool I in Zagreb, they should be warned by their
challengers, namely host Croatia, Romania as well as Azerbaijan, who
are also a favourite for the Final Four after having won the 2005
European Qualification Tournament for the 2006 FIVB World Grand Prix in
Guba (AZE) beating Russia in the final in July 2005, and Serbia &
Montenegro who can boast a surprising 3:2 victory over Germany in the
World Championship qualification tournament which took place in Dresden
(GER) earlier this year. “Our first aim in this balanced group is to
reach the next round”, states German team captain Angelina Grün who won
the Indesit European Champions' League 2004/05 with her Italian club
Foppapedretti BERGAMO last season, “Of
course it would also be nice to achieve a medal at the end of the
competition, just like two years ago.”
The favourites in Pool II, which is taking place in Croatia’s coastal city of Pula, are 2003 European Vice Champion Turkey, 2000 and 2004 Olympic silver medallist Russia as well as 2002 World Champion Italy, who reached second place at the FIVB World Grand Prix 2004 and 2005. Nevertheless, the ambitious team from the Netherlands will surely not want to miss their chance for qualifying to the Final Four, and lower ranked Bulgaria and Spain will be hoping to achieve a breakthrough in women’s volleyball. Who knows, maybe the Spanish women will follow in the footsteps of their men’s national squad who managed to finish as fourth best European team in 2005, trailing only the volleyball superpowers of Italy, Russia and Serbia & Montenegro.
The two best teams in each pool will qualify for the Final Four which will be held in Zagreb from 24th to 25th September together with the classification matches for places five to eight. The final best six ranked teams will automatically qualify for the Women’s Senior European Championship 2006/07 Final Round together with Belgium, one of the Final Round organising teams. Luxembourg, organising the Final Round 2007 in collaboration with the Belgian Volleyball Federation, has turned down the opportunity to participate in the Women’s Indesit European Championship 2007 Final Round, preferring to remain faithful to the European Championship competition for ‘small countries’.
The Drawing of Lots for the 2006/2007 Women’s Indesit European Championship, which will stage 16 teams same as the men’s competition, will take place on 20th November 2005.
Women’s Indesit European Championship 2005
Preliminary Pool Round in Zagreb and Pula, Croatia (all times CET)
Match Schedule
Preliminary Pool I in Zagreb (CRO)
|
17.09.2005 |
15.30 |
CRO - ROM |
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|
17.09.2005 |
18.00 |
POL - AZE |
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|
17.09.2005 |
20.30 |
GER - SCG |
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|
18.09.2005 |
15.30 |
AZE - ROM |
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|
18.09.2005 |
18.00 |
SCG - CRO |
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|
18.09.2005 |
20.30 |
POL - GER |
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|
19.09.2005 |
15.30 |
ROM - SCG |
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|
19.09.2005 |
18.00 |
GER - AZE |
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|
19.09.2005 |
20.30 |
CRO - POL |
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|
20.09.2005 |
REST DAY |
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|
21.09.2005 |
15.30 |
AZE - SCG |
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|
21.09.2005 |
18.00 |
POL - ROM |
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|
21.09.2005 |
20.30 |
GER - CRO |
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|
22.09.2005 |
15.30 |
SCG - POL |
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|
22.09.2005 |
18.00 |
ROM - GER |
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|
22.09.2005 |
20.30 |
CRO - AZE |
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Preliminary Pool II in Pula (CRO)
|
17.09.2005 |
15.30 |
NED - BUL |
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|
17.09.2005 |
18.00 |
ITA - ESP |
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|
17.09.2005 |
20.30 |
TUR - RUS |
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|
18.09.2005 |
15.30 |
BUL - ITA |
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|
18.09.2005 |
18.00 |
RUS - ESP |
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|
18.09.2005 |
20.30 |
TUR - NED |
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|
19.09.2005 |
15.30 |
ESP - BUL |
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|
19.09.2005 |
18.00 |
ITA - TUR |
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|
19.09.2005 |
20.30 |
NED - RUS |
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|
20.09.2005 |
REST DAY |
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|
21.09.2005 |
15.30 |
TUR - ESP |
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|
21.09.2005 |
18.00 |
NED - ITA |
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|
21.09.2005 |
20.30 |
RUS - BUL |
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|
22.09.2005 |
15.30 |
ESP - NED |
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|
22.09.2005 |
18.00 |
ITA - RUS |
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|
22.09.2005 |
20.30 |
BUL - TUR |
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Final Four in Zagreb (CRO)
|
24.09.2005 |
12.00 |
Semifinal for 5-8 |
Match D:4th Pool I vs. 3rd Pool II |
|
24.09.2005 |
14.00 |
Semifinal for 5-8 |
Match C: 3rd Pool I vs. 4th Pool II |
|
24.09.2005 |
16.30 |
Semifinal for 1-4 |
Match A: 1st Pool I vs. 2nd Pool II |
|
24.09.2005 |
19.00 |
Semifinal for 1-4 |
Match B: 2nd Pool I vs. 1st Pool II |
|
25.09.2005 |
12.00 |
Classification 7-8 |
Loser C vs. Loser D |
|
25.09.2005 |
14.00 |
Classification 5-6 |
Winner C vs. Winner D |
|
25.09.2005 |
16.30 |
Bronze Medal Match |
Loser A vs. Loser B |
|
25.09.2005 |
19.00 |
Final |
Winner A vs. Winner B |
For more information on the Women’s Indesit European Championship 2005 please view www.cev.lu or www.wsech-cro.hr.
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