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“RTU Border Guard” / “Jurmala” team spent money to meet all the requirements of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) in the debut of the CEV Challenge Cup, but instead of the initial two games in Latvia were forced to reckon with going to the Czech Republic, leaving CEV without , in a conversation with the news agency LETA, the club manager Arnis Tunte says.
It has already been reported that the RTU Border Guard / Jūrmala team was forced to announce its withdrawal from the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) Challenge Cup Covid-19 in its debut tournament.
At the beginning of the month, the Latvian team had to meet with the Czech club Prague “Lvi” in the final of the CEV Challenge Cup 1/16. The Czech team arrived in Latvia, but two volleyball players were found to have Covid-19 in their bodies, so both games scheduled for Jūrmala did not take place.
Initially, it was reported that if the teams failed to agree on the dates on which the games will be repeated in Latvia, the Czech club will be awarded a loss.
However, no losses were awarded to the Czechs.
Tunte says that in order for Latvians to count as winners of the games scheduled for Latvia, CEV required seafarers to take Covid-19 tests. The Jurmala team did not see the point if the opponents could not play due to illness, and no tests were performed. It would have cost the team about a thousand euros.
“After Latvia decided that people only go for Covid-19 tests with a doctor’s referral, we didn’t see the point in paying money to check on healthy people and send a CEV certificate that we were all healthy,” says Tunte.
He does not understand why “CEV after receiving information that two games are taking place in Jūrmala, which we are also counting on, and after canceling the first game, began to ignore the e-mail confirming that two games are planned in Latvia,” Tunte does not understand.
He says that at the next meeting, which was attended by both Jūrmala and Prague clubs, this issue was not even raised, although two weeks have passed since the games planned for November 5 and 6.
“At the end of the meeting, both of our teams were told to stay last, and then suddenly we started talking about the fact that there was no e-mail about two games, that we were talking about one game, that only if Covid-19 tests were done. would have won and that they have to go to play in the Czech Republic, ”says the club manager.
At that time, the Latvian teams had to think about ten days of self-isolation after their return, and the people of Jūrmala offered to play two games – one in Jūrmala, one in Prague. When it was not accepted, the Jurmala club, in order for the team to have had games and gain practice in competitions of this rank, proposed to play one game or two about halfway – in Warsaw, dividing the costs into two, but this option did not satisfy the Czechs either.
Tunte says that CEV showed indecision, allowing the clubs to agree on everything themselves. He expresses a version that maybe that’s why in the first round of the men’s both games, only six of the 16 pairs took place.
He mentions that preparing for the games in Jūrmala cost the team three to four thousand euros, as well as the club helped the Czech team negotiate discounts, for example, at a hotel when arriving in Latvia, but Latvian fans did not see the games, even on the Internet or television.
“Because we have two ‘legionnaires’ – Ukrainian Vitaly Shchitkov and Argentine Mac Nicholas Ariel, when applying for the CEV Challenge Cup, the club had to spend almost one and a half thousand euros on player transfers, which would not have been paid without a start in one of the European Cups,” explains manager.
“CEV rules state that if you play in a CEV competition, the transfer amount is much higher than what you would have to pay if we had not participated in the CEV Challenge Cup,” says Tunte.
He cannot understand how CEV could have agreed to play in the Czech Republic, where the epidemiological situation was much worse than in Latvia. “At that time, Latvia was in the top three in Covid-19 in Europe, but the Czech Republic had the second worst indicator,” recalls Tunte.
The club pointed to these factors in talks with CEV, but the European volleyball supervisory authority replied that the borders were open and that the Czech Republic had to travel. If this is not done, the Jurmala club will be awarded a loss.
“They changed the rules of the game during the competition,” says Tunte. “From two games in Latvia, we went on a trip to the Czech Republic. We have supporters in Latvia, and our play at home was also supported by the Latvian Volleyball Federation. ”
He adds that Latvians are obviously not interesting in CEV. “The rules state that if the parties fail to reach an agreement, if the parties fail to reach an agreement, the team with the higher ranking enters the next round,” he explains, the rules are in favor of the strongest clubs and CEV does nothing to counter both sides.
“If it is a national rating, I don’t see the point in clubs from big countries – Russia, Italy and Poland – going somewhere, because they will enter the next round in the same way. Come to us for that one game, we will “break you”, move on, as well as save time and money, “points out the illogical CEV solutions in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the end, the Jurmala club offered to go to the “bubble” in the Ukrainian city of Horodok together with the Prague club, where it is planned to play the eighth and quarterfinals and before them play one game, which determines which of the two teams enters the eighth final, but CEV did not agree.
It has already been reported that Jēkabpils “Lynx” also dropped out of the CEV Challenge Cup, failing to play against the Italian grand Milan “Allianz Powervolley”.
In the CEV Challenge Cup for women twice in Riga, their opponents from the Czech Republic TJ Ostrava ”lost“ Riga Volleyball School ”/“ University of Latvia ”.
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