ParaVolley EUROPE Sitting & Standing Volleyball in Europe
ANOTHER YEAR BEHIND US
We can ask ourselves have we done enough? We all know it is never enough but a lot has been achieved in the last 12 months.
Our Paravolley family is growing and thanks to all of you who have shared their views and took part in many discussions, we have prepared a brand new frame for all our competitions which will be unveiled in 2020.
2020 will see the first edition of the European Championship B Men take place in June in Šempeter (SLO) alongside a new Women’s competition in the name of Women’s Open. Nine (9) men’s teams have applied to take part in this European Championship B to increase their chance to qualify for the 2021 European Championships Group A as three spots will be allocated then.
Another competition will also make its debut in 2020 – the Men’s Nations League due to start in October 2020 and to be followed by the Women’s Nations League in 2021.
The Clubs competition has already started taking shape and the first matches will take place at the beginning of 2020. This season will be called Season Zero with the first real season starting in October 2020 and finishing by end May 2021 (as per the normal Volleyball calendar season). To do this, we have had to prepare a new players registration system which resulted in many challenges to solve.
From an educational point of year, 2020 will be a major year for educating European referees, classifiers, technical delegates and coaches with seminars taking place in June.
For the first time in ParaVolley Europe history, we successfully delivered the Erasmus + Sit2Play project this year (high schools competition) and we started cooperation with EUSA (European Students Association) where Universities and student around Europe will play sitting volleyball.
All the above are very ambitious projects but projects that the sport really needs to develop and reach out to all countries in Europe. These can only be achieved by mutual cooperation between the ParaVolley board members, commissions members and our national stakeholders (federations, Paralympic committees, clubs, players, coaches, volunteers). Whether you are a long term member or brand new member, your input and feedback are as important and we encourage you to reach out to us.
We have several other projects in the pipeline, including additional European projects and Strategy plans for the years to come so watch this space and follow us on our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and websites (www.paravolley.eu www.eurosittingvolley.eu). If you want to become more involved and help us grow by making your views/opinions/suggestions heard, please request to join PVE Workplace (more details on http://www.paravolley.eu/organisation/workplace/) if you have not already done so.
In the meantime, the PVE board would like to wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to co-operating with all of you to take the sport we love to unprecedented heights.
Regards,
Branko Mihorko – President
On behalf of the ParaVolley Europe Board
