kubiak-and-bruno
An overbooked international volleyball calendar caused the increase of injuries of professional players, especially of those who play both on a club level and for national teams during a season. Not to mention fatigue due to long-distance journeys. This year might be one of the worst for top professional players knowing that some of them are about to play approximately 90 matches: club season, FIVB Volleyball Nations League, FIVB International Olympic Qualifying tournament, CEV EuroVolley and FIVB World Cup! That number was 80 in 2018.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, top players worldwide have established a sort of improvised union and requested an urgent sit-down with the FIVB officials. The catalyst was a banal request of a governing body of international volleyball that players need to take part in a photo shoot for the second season of the Nations League. That triggered a reaction of players as their discontent was accumulating for a long time.
Players wrote a collective letter to the FIVB leadership with a request to revise the calendar of national teams. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the document was signed by many stars of world volleyball: Brazilian Bruno Rezende, Italians Ivan Zaytsev and Simone Giannelli, Frenchmen Benjamin Toniutti and Kévin Tilly, Pole Michał Kubiak, Russian Dmitriy Muserskiy, German György Grozer, Iranian Saeid Marouf, American Micah Christenson and others.
The volleyball stars eventually met with the FIVB representatives in the Italian city of Bologna, last Friday. Zaytsev, Bruno, Christenson, and Tilly came to the meeting in front of the improvised union of players. They were supported by the Italian League General Director Massimo Righi, Diatec Trentino President Diego Mosna, and the representative of the Italian Volleyball Federation, Samuele Papi. There were six people from the FIVB present, including a legendray Brazilian player Gilberto Filho “Giba”, who now heads the IOC Athletes’ Commission which was created in 2016 to serve as a link between volleyball players and the International Olympic Committee. The players stressed at the meeting that they were aware this problem is unlikely to be resolved in the coming months, but wanted changes in future seasons.
The parties did not come to any concrete decision in Bologna, but the players made their points clear adding that they are open for a discussion. The delegation of players was invited to the next FIVB meeting which will be held soon in Lausanne.
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7 comments
It was about the time, the schedule is crazy on expense of players’ health
Every club, league, National Federation and the FIVB want to squeeze the most from the fruit but there is only so much juice , especially with overlapping calendars.
This meeting was long overdue and its really important for the FIVB to listen to their athletes.
Every sport has a down time/off season and its crucial for recovery, rehabilitation and actually development. This is a essentially specialized sport with repetitive motions that needs to be tempered.
So glad to hear this took place
Can you guys at least spellcheck? Tillie not Tilly
Nothing will happen because the players do not have the power to change nothing. The only thing is they refuse to play for the national team and save their careers
There would not be a problem with the number of games if FIVB would have to pay to players, national federations and clubs for every day they use the players.
One example of importance to have a proper rest – Why is so demand for former Cuban NT players who are abroad? Of course they are talented, however for several years after league seasons, they can relax, rehabilitate and train. Moreover without special interference from control bodies….
On another hand, there is too long interuption between league seasons for players who are not members of NTs.
One of the reason of such a situation is a lack of the transparency of spending of financial resourses of FIVB and continental governing bodies…
Doing a 24-team Olympic intercontinental qualifier is a waste.
Just invite the winners of the World Chsmpionship, World League and continental champions, then do an 8 team repechage.