Another club less – and at the top of the eternal duel threatens. The volleyball players start the new season with old problems.
Actually, the volleyball world in the capital is fine. The series champion is aiming for the record hunt and the new season should be at least as successful as the last. But when the fight for the championship begins at the weekend, the Berlin Recycling Volleys will once again have one opponent less. – However, this does not trigger any storms of jubilation.
“I would be lying if I said I’m happy that we’re only starting with nine teams. It’s definitely not what I’m imagining“said Volleys Managing Director Kaweh Niroomand.
Frankfurt – the next location is gone
United Volleys Frankfurt announced their first division exit in the summer. The 2021 DVV Cup winner, who had high ambitions, did not receive a license. The fact that one location is lost again is that “Extremely unfortunate, you can’t sugarcoat that“said VBL Managing Director Julia Retzlaff.
The United Volleys are not the first loss the league has to mourn: The Volleyball Bisons Bühl did not apply for a license last year of their own free will. In 2020, the corona crisis ensured that three clubs said goodbye to the upper house, and the possible climbers are shy.
Second division do not want high
“All locations that have disappeared in recent years are hurting“, said Niroomand. Frankfurt in particular had the potential, “to become a formative force in German volleyball. But whining is useless, we have to see that we find alternatives.“
The league recognized that too. Other Clubs”enable them to dare the ascension and support them accordingly” be “the overriding goalsaid Retzlaff.Two or three free places” you want to fill with second division teams next year. For those who would not have dared to step into the top division, it is “almost always for economic reasons” been.
Goal: Reduce financial hurdles
With the first division you now have “an intense dialogue“led about,”which adjustment screws we can turn together to make this gap smaller“, reported Retzlaff. That’s how you looked, “which framework conditions we can perhaps do without in the starting seasons in order to lower the hurdle for potential first division clubs“.
But now there are only nine, including the youth team VC Olympia Berlin, which has special playing rights. In any case, the last time at the top was in 1997 a club that didn’t come from Berlin or Friedrichshafen. And also this season the BR Volleys want “play again for all titles“Niromand stressed.
Berlin – Friedrichshafen – the well-known duel for the title is expected in the Volleyball Bundesliga.
Friedrichshafen demands master Berlin
The Berliners have already won the championship twelve times. To win the 13th title to equal the record of the permanent rival Friedrichshafen, “would be nice for the history books” said Niroomand: “But it’s purely a statistic, our goals remain independent of that.”
At VfB you want meanwhile “of course try everything to make Berlin the title in dispute“, emphasized managing director Thilo Späth-Westerholt. In the end, however, the competitor was “still the favorite, at least on paper“.