23 January 2019•Update: 23 January 2019
By Fatih Erel
ISTANBUL
The draw ceremony of pool stage of the CEV EuroVolley 2019 Women was held in Istanbul on the shores of the Bosporus on Wednesday.
The tournament will run from Aug. 23 to Sep. 8 across four countries; Turkey, Poland, Hungary Slovakia.
"Many thanks to the Turkish Volleyball Federation for their welcome and especially to their president. They have organized many major competitions and always have done so with much success," CEV President Aleksandar Boricic said in the ceremony.
"We have experienced organizers in the other three countries as well. It is the first time we have four organizers and 24 participating teams. Moreover, I would say that this is a historic tournament and event, as it goes with the men’s championship that takes place in another four countries, and we possibly have another eight in 2021, meaning we can promote volleyball across the whole of Europe," Boricic said.
"It is an opportunity to develop Volleyball like never before. European Volleyball has never been as strong as now, but we still need to work even harder to raise the status and international value of our sport," Boricic said.
The championship will start on August 23 in four cities - Ankara, Lodz, Budapest and Bratislava and the 24 participating teams will play five matches in their respective pools, whose composition reads as follows:
Group A: Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, France, Finland, Greece
Group B: Poland, Italy, Belgium, Ukraine, Portugal, Slovenia
Group C: Hungary, Holland, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Estonia
Group D: Slovakia, Russia, Germany, Belarus, Spain, Switzerland
"The fans can already look forward to some exciting matches, especially in Pool A where co-hosts Turkey will play reigning world champions Serbia and the winners of the 2018 Golden European League, Bulgaria," CEV said in a statement.
"The Turkish Volleyball Federation has hosted many competitions with big success and has become an important country on the world and European Volleyball map. The year 2019 coincides with the 100th anniversary of Volleyball in Turkey," said President of the Turkish Volleyball Federation Mehmet Akif Ustundag.
"The audience in Ankara will continue to support our team and all players with much passion and I am sure we will achieve results that we will be proud of at the end of the tournament," Ustundag said.
