17/12/2019 12:00
European League group stage squads confirmed
CEV Volleyball European League 2020
Luxembourg, December 17, 2019. As many as 36 teams representing 23 National Federations are due to take part in the 2020 edition of the CEV European League. The top 12 from the latest European Ranking will contest the Golden League, with the remaining ones set to hone and grow their skills in the Silver League. The competition will start in late May 2020 with the pool stage, before reaching its climax with the respective finals towards the end of June.
CEV President Aleksandar Boričić chaired the annual European League meeting at the home of European Volleyball on Tuesday morning, emphasising the importance of this competition as a platform for teams to continue with their development. “In two years only we have increased our annual investment in this competition from € 125,000 to 1.2 million. We encourage all National Federations to work hard to promote the European League in their respective countries, focussing on taking fans to the arena, not only to watch a Volleyball match, but to be a part of an event experience as well. This is what we did with the eight organisers of the highly successful and record-breaking EuroVolley held earlier this year,” he said.
There is much at stake for the Golden League contestants, with Belgium and Bulgaria set to play host to the men’s and women’s Final Four tournaments respectively, which will be taking place on June 20-21, 2020.
The top two teams will secure their participation in the 2020 edition of the FIVB Challenger Cup, where they will battle for a much-coveted ticket to take part in the 2021 edition of the elite FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
The 12 teams per gender will begin their journey in the pool stage – with three groups of four teams each. The pool winners will join the Final Four hosts for the most exciting stage of the competition. The total prize money at stake at the Finals alone stands at € 305,000, with € 125,000 going to the eventual winners of the competition.
The respective pool composition for the men’s and women’s competition reads as follows:
Turkey will be trying to retain the men’s Golden League crown they claimed in June 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia, when they beat Belarus in the final. The Czech Republic are the titleholders of the women’s competition and quite interestingly, they will begin their journey in a pool featuring their rival in the 2019 gold medal match, i.e. Croatia.
The Silver League features six teams per gender, divided into two pools of three each. The eventual winners of the competition will move up to the Golden League in 2021, thus replacing the lowest-ranked from the 2020 edition. Slovenia and Greece lost the 2019 women’s and men’s finals to Romania – and with Romania due to contest the Golden League in 2020 – they will be trying to secure that victory that eluded them this past summer. On another note, Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are making their historic debut in the women’s competition.
The respective pool composition for the men’s and women’s competition reads as follows:
The top teams from each pool will move on to the final stage of the Silver League, playing home and away matches that will crown the eventual winners in late June.
The CEV will be publishing a detailed competition schedule later this week.
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