A new format by which the number of the teams participating in Group 1 of FIVB World League increases might be established for the next season 2015/2016. Does it mean that Russia and Bulgaria could play among the best ones again?
At least, this is what many people involved in the volleyball world expect.
What would be the reason for letting Bulgaria, who lost the finals in Group 2 vs.France, and Russia –who had only 1 win this season (3:1 vs. Iran) ?
How would the FIVB World League look like without Russia? Would be fans pleased with seeing their favorites from Sbornaya not competing against the strongest ones?
Russia has one of the strongest Championsips, and on the other hand the the Russian Volleyball Federation has a strong lobby in the volleyball world. The way that FIVB could let Russia play in Group 1 during the next seasons is to increase the number of the teams. Untill now, the teams in Group 1 were 8,divided in two groups of 4. If Russia stay, and France enter as a winner in Group 2, the teams would be 9 which is unacceptable.
And here comes the explanation of letting Team Bulgaria in Group 1. In Group 1 should compete 10 teams, which means that the second best team in the final standing in Group 2 would qualify… Bulgarian supporters could be really lucky, because namely Team Bulgaria is the second best after France.
Actually, some Italian media reported that most probably there will be 12 teams from the next seasons competing in Group 1..
Of course, for now these “news”could be considered only as rumors for now because there is nothing officially confirmed. FIVB will held a meeting in August and it’s expected that during it the important people in the International Volleyball Federation will discuss the matter and let the world know what they’ve decided regarding the FIVB World League 2016.
The President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Dancho Lazarov gave a short explanation on the topic for the Bulgarian newspaper “Trud” : We should not expect things to happen that easily, but there is a chance for this to happen. We all know that because of Russia FIVB is expected to do something and save the place of Sbornaya among the best. For example, they could expand the number of the participants into three groups of 4 teams. This could be our chance, having in mind our lost vs. France. We must admit that at this moment France are much better than us but I’d say that also the teams that were competing in Varna showed good class , no inferior than the teams in Group 1. It would be unreasonable to increase the number of the participants”, Lazarov said.
Photo: FIVB
