Raisio, Finland, October 21, 2014. The Finnish international Urpo Sivula has decided to stay with the team of Loimu RAISIO for its upcoming 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men campaign despite a clause in his contract with the club, signed on October 7, allowing him to transfer to a foreign club by the middle of December.
Sivula was an important part of Finland’s national team, which took a historic ninth place at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014. There was some international demand for Sivula’s services, but he decided to stay in Finland and joined Loimu.
The contract has an interesting background. A new partner of Loimu Taivas+Helvetti (which translates into Heaven+Hell), made this deal possible. Both Loimu and Taivas+Helvetti are using the orange color as an external brand. In addition, they both have a common message - social responsibility as a guideline of action. Taivas+Helvetti is a national movement, which has the purpose of introducing both successful and failed entrepreneurship stories. The goal is to create a more compliant Finland by means of youth work. At the same time Taivas+Helvetti is trying to make Finland a good place to live in the future as it is today, donating one book for a graduating young Finnish person for each book sold.
26-year-old opposite Urpo Sivula has played 155 international matches. He is a versatile player, whose strength is an effective attacking game, as well as a great team player. Sivula started his career in the Finnish volleyball league in the 2006-2007 season. He played for Pielaveden Sampo PIELAVESI for almost three seasons and also represented Finland’s Tiikerit KOKKOLA. For four seasons Sivula played abroad, representing Turkey’s Galatasaray ISTANBUL and Arkas IZMIR, Italy’s Acqua Paradiso MONZA and Edilesse Conad REGGIO EMILIA and Germany’s BERLIN Recycling Volleys.
Despite being a relatively young player Sivula has achieved a lot of success. He was awarded as the Best Rookie of the Finnish volleyball league in 2007. In his career, Sivula became the volleyball champion of Finland and of Germany, also winning three national cups of his native country.
Loimu’s CEV Cup participation starts on November 5 at 18:30 local time, when the team from Raision entertains Belgium’s Volley behappy2 ASSE-LENNIK at the Kerttulan Lukuntahalli competition hall for the first leg of their sixteenthfinal clash.
Click here for more info on the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men.