Maritza PLOVDIV
The inaugural Kupa Plovdiv tournament that is set to take place next week at the Olimpiada sports hall with the participation of Maritza and elite teams from Turkey, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is only the first step towards starting this project.
“To initiate the creation of a professional zonal league along with other clubs on the Balkans has been in our minds for over a year now”, Maritza manager Boris Halachev explains. “Currently, there is an official BVA Cup that constitutes only one single-venue tournament. Our idea is to play either as a league in home-and-away fixtures or, if this is impossible for some financial or organizational reasons, each participating team may organize a home tournament to count towards the overall standings. If there are six or more participating teams they could be divided into pools with a Final Four weekend to follow for determining the Balkan champion. The Bulgarian Volleyball Federation supports our idea. Our colleagues from Romania have also held talks with their federation and they also seem to like it. So do our counterparts in Turkey. We are taking a bottom-to-top approach. First, we want to find more clubs that are interested in participating in such a Balkan league, then they should discuss it with their national federations and finally a proposal should be brought up to the Balkan Volleyball Association”.
“As a stepping stone towards implementing its project, Maritza will play host to three other top-tier teams from neighboring countries for a strong women’s tournament to be held October 1 through 3” Halachev, joined by head coach Ivan Petkov (pictured), announced at a specially organized press conference in Bulgaria’s second largest city. In addition to the Bulgarian national cup holders, the teams of Nilüfer Belediyesi BURSA from Turkey, Tent OBRENOVAC from Serbia and Forza Volley SKOPJE from the F.Y. Republic of Macedonia will compete for the inaugural Kupa Plovdiv. The tournament will feature a single round robin over the three competition days.
In the 2011/2012 season Nilüfer finished seventh in Turkey’s national league, Tent took bronze in Serbia and will play in the upcoming CEV Volleyball Cup, while Forza Volley became champion of Macedonia as Maritza snatched Kupa Bulgariya and played in the national championship series.
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