07/06/2019 10:22
A ‘hot summer’ for Romania’s Volleyball family
News from the National Federations
Bucharest, Romania, June 7, 2019. For the first time in 25 years, both the men’s and women’s national teams of Romania have qualified for the Final Round of EuroVolley. For the Romanian Volleyball Federation (RVF), the challenge is much greater since as many as five national teams competing in different age groups take part in European or even World Championships this year.
Obviously, the senior national teams are the ones enjoying the most exposure, which is why, for the best preparation, RVF President Gheorghe Vișan decided to register both national teams for participation in the European League. Since Romania missed the last few editions of the competition, they re-started their journey from the Silver League.
The RVF President is confident that their women’s national team will make it through the group stage of EuroVolley that they are due to contest in Budapest. “It is doable,” Vișan believes and in his opinion the chances of qualification for the quarterfinals are somewhere at 90 percent. “I brought a very experienced coach for this team, and I am convinced that Luciano Pedullà, together with his staff, including his younger colleagues Marius Macicasan and Vasile Pislaru, will know how to find the solutions needed to achieve the goal.”
As for the men’s national team, Vișan believes that the day Romania defeated Finland in the EuroVolley qualifiers was a historic one for Romanian Volleyball. “However, we do not have to stop here, especially since we have a talented team where experienced athletes have excellently combined with very young athletes such as Adrian Aciobanitei or Rares Balean.” Under these circumstances, the RFV President believes that there is a good chance that Romania will be able to defeat Greece and Portugal. As far as the matches with France, Italy and Bulgaria go, Visan is convinced that playing against some of the world’s top 10 teams will help Romania, which can produce big surprises in Montpellier.
RVF President Gheorghe Visan portrayed together with CEV President Aleksandar Boričić and CEV Senior Vice President Renato Arena.
Visan has been leading Romania’s Volleyball family since 2004. Previously, he was a member of the Federal Bureau and between 1996 and 2000, he was the Vice-President of the RVF. Before joining the managing structures of the federation, Vișan was a well-known referee. He officiated more than 1,000 matches in the first division, but he also had a 16-year-long international career.
Among the most important matches he attended, Visan remembers the ones in the World League, when he officiated at the fixture between Brazil and Venezuela in 2005 in an arena with 20,000 spectators at Betim, near Belo Horizonte, or the matchup Poland vs Russia in Krakow. One of the most beautiful memories for him as a referee comes from the national championship. For many years, the title was an affair involving the two big forces in Bucharest, Dinamo and Steaua. The matches were always much disputed, and both teams were contesting the work of the referees. At one point, both teams submitted a letter to the federation demanding that Visan should officiate at all matches between these teams and so it remained for five years.
Now Visan hopes to be able to ensure a bright future for Romanian Volleyball. For sure, qualifying the two senior national teams for this year’s EuroVolley shows that things are going in the right way, but the President is convinced that there is the need for a further contribution from young people. Appointing young, energetic coaches to lead the senior national teams has brought the expected results.
The fourth from left to right in the first row, RVF President Gheorghe Visan is a former international referee.
Moreover, the U16 women’s and U17 men’s national teams have qualified for the final stage of their respective European Championship due to take place later this summer. The work of young coaches like Adrian Radu or Constantin Burungiu has helped some players make a huge progress and these will soon join the ranks of the senior teams. Moreover, the U18 women’s national team has qualified for the World Championship coming up this September in Cairo. This team finished fifth at last year’s U17 European Championship in Bulgaria, thus accounting for the best result achieved by a Romanian team in international competitions in many years. Therefore, the RVF President believes that the younger players will soon make the transition to the senior team, and in this respect, middle blocker Francesca Ioana Alupei has already played for the ‘big ones’ in the European Silver League.
It will definitely be an important summer for Romanian Volleyball, having five teams involved in such difficult tournaments. However, Gheorghe Visan does not forget that the main goal comes in two years. “We obtained the right to organise the EuroVolley Women in 2021; for us it is a great honour but also a great responsibility.” Together with the Romanian Government, the federation will be working hard to make this event a real success, but until then Visan hopes to get as many players as possible from the younger national teams move to the senior ranks to guarantee a bright future for Romanian Volleyball.
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