Connect with us

INTERVIEW

Boone: «We don’t want to divide but to help the development of volleyball»

Published

on

Back in September 2017… Representatives from 5 European Professional Volleyball Leagues participated in an extraordinary meeting held in Bologna Italy, which led to the birth of the Volleyball League Association.

interview Δημήτρη Τυχάλα
[email protected] </a

At the time, very few paid attention to this development. But one year on, VLA has already expanded and from an obscure organization is ready to play a key role in the sport of volleyball.
The President of VLA, Mr Philippe Boone in his first ever interview talked to Sportsfeed speaking about the organization’s first year of maturity. He lays out their next moves and analyzes the VLA’s main goals, with the future improvement of the sport being at the heart of their efforts.

-The first thing that someone could think is that after ELA in football and Euroleague in basketball, volleyball is trying to establish a similar Union. Is it so?
«The first thing we did was to discuss bilaterally Belgium with France, Belgium with Italy and then we thought that it’s a good thing to come together to share expertise, to exchange ideas in order to become stronger as leagues, to develop our championships and to support the economic model of our clubs. Because we think that federations are involved in so many things in volleyball in their countries and at the same time they are not really aware of the financial difficulties of the professional clubs».

-And then you became an association. So what is the main purpose of VLA?
«The main purpose is to support our national competitions. We need to be respected or to be officially recognized by FIVB and CEV for example in order to talk about the calendar, because for the moment we have only the point of view of the FIVB…»

-Before we open the topic of the calendar, you have said that you wanted to be recognized by the governing body of International and European Volleyball. Did you get this recognition or have you tried to get it?
«Not yet. We have a meeting on November with CEV…»

-Did you receive any reaction from CEV after VLA made its official appearance?
«No, not really but it was not so important from my point of view. First we have to prepare ourselves, to discuss all together and to find what we can put in common. We needed one year to discuss all these matters. Because you can think globally but you need to act locally… For example we can talk about player’s contracts in the VLA, but those have to be developed based on the special specificity of each country. The contracts are different in each country because we have different laws»

So the last year it was like a preparation period for VLA but at the same time you have expanded from 4 to 6 members. Αre you aiming to grow VLA, to invite representatives from other countries?
«You know better than me volleyball in Europe and in VLA we have the only six independent, professional leagues in our continent. Other leagues exist but they are under their domestic federations’ umbrella»

Maybe you could invite them as independent observers in your meetings…
«That’s an idea and we can think about it but for the moment we first needed to strengthen the relationship that we already have. I think that any idea that we will come from another model, from another economical model, from another society will be disturbing»

-Now let’s go back to the calendar issue. In volleyball we have six to seven months for club competitions and the rest of the season we have national teams’ competitions and for 12 months volleyball players are playing, travelling, practicing. In other sports, with the last exception of basketball, they have managed to find a good combination. Do you think it is time to change the status quo also in volleyball?
«It is our aim to do it but we have to deal with things that exist. If we could dream, in an ideal world we should say we would like to have 8 months clubs competition, one month rest and three months of national teams. We know that is a big difference regarding the situation that we have right now in our sport but I think we can discuss with CEV and FIVB about a better situation»

-So you would like to make this change step by step. Are you optimistic?
«We know that they are planning some changes in the calendar. There are different scenarios that they have already been discussed and analyzed and we want the governing bodies of World and European Volleyball to listen to us. We want just to take part in those discussions and to put on the table our ideas and our point of view for this crucial issue. We know the situation in our clubs, we are concerned for the health of our players due to the heavy schedule and don’t forget that our clubs are paying the players not the national teams. We need to have better harmony»

-The bad scenario is that FIVB and CEV will tell you “no, we don’t want to hear anything from VLA”. If it happened are you determined for an intense reaction as for example did Noliko Maaseik and Knak Roselare for the issue of the Belgian Cup in their argument with the Belgian Federation? Are you willing to send such a strong message to them?
«I don’t want to think about the ‘if’.. In general I ‘m in positive attitude and I think volleyball will win again. I was involved in the initiative of the two Belgian teams and the result is that now we have a clear contract with the Federation»

-So you managed to change it…
«We both change! When you negotiate and you want to keep going together both parties have to put things on the table»

-It was a speedy procedure?
«Two months after what happened in the Cup Final we have reached an agreement and we did it together with the Minister of Sports. We have asked our Minister of Sports to take part in this negotiation and he organized a meeting between the League and the Federation. In that meeting he told us that he needed a positive answer as soon as possible»

– Are you satisfied with the solution that found?
«You are never satisfied with a compromise because the outcome is never 100% what you have expected! But on the other hand I’ m happy that I have enough tools to develop on a positive base volleyball in Belgium»

– And this is the way you would like to change things with VLA?
«Yes of course! I’m the president of VLA, but I will not change my personality, I will not change my way of thinking. Together with the CEO of the Italian League Massimo Righi we are in charge of the relationships with CEV. We both are diplomats, and we want to just go one step further not to reach the end of the road immediately»

– Calendar is one issue but what about the European Cups? Do you have any ideas or suggestion for changes? For example Champions League has a glamour name but probably it’s not the competition that volleyball fans have dreamed of.
«As VLA we are not unhappy with the current format of the Champions League. Every country has its own point of view for the competition. For example for the Belgium team it is important to participate in CL, but for Italian team the domestic championship is more important than the CL. So also in this case we have to find a good compromise but we are not unhappy»

– Maybe it will be an option to add more good teams from the strongest leagues in the competition?
«The only way for teams from Greece, Belgium, France or Germany, if they want to have their possibilities to succeed in the Champions League, is to make our own championships stronger. You know CEV has high standards for the organization of the Champions Leagues matches. Those standards we have to implement them in our national competitions»

-In order to make every single match like a Champions League match?
«Not 100% but perhaps 75%… Although in Belgium we are not happy with the new formula because with only two clubs qualifying from the 4 qualification rounds we know that our teams haven’t got a lot of chances, I have to admit that CEV is doing a very good job in the Champions League. And given the chance I would like to take you go back to the reason why we started VLA… Because we wanted to make our national competition stronger. So the Champions League is not our main purpose and we will not put a lot of thinking energy in changing Champions League»

-Another big issue is volleyball agents.
«First of all I have to say that I’m coming from other sports and my opinion is that volleyball in general is a clean sport. We had a very positive meeting with the European Athletes Union and we have to work together in order to make it even cleaner! Cleaner about contracts, about transfer modalities, about the intervention of agents»

– Do you believe that we can reach a moment when we will have some general principles that those six professional leagues will follow on this issue?
«Economic laws and social laws do not depend on sports regulations but on national or European laws. For sure we want to have more harmonized organization of those topics but we have to do it step by step»

-What is the next step for VLA?’
«We will have in November a meeting with CEV and after that another meeting will follow with FIVB. Why FIVB? Because FIVB, not CEV, is in charge of the calendar. And there is another matter that we have to discuss with FIVB. There is an FIVB rule saying that 10% of each international transfer should be given back to the leagues in order to invest them for the development of our leagues. And we want to be sure that we will get that money from FIVB»

-In Belgium did you ever get any money from FIVB for that reason?
«Never!»

-And this is something that is happening for many years…
«Yes…»

-Any other plans for the future?
«You should expect first of all the social dialogue with the players and we decide to organize a big meeting in which we will invite all our clubs to share expertise, focusing on marketing issues. We did it for the first time this summer in Bologna during the volley mercato where 23 teams from other countries attended this meeting. Probably it will be in Greece next June and the focus will be on marketing. Each country will present during these seminars a case story. For example in Belgium this year we started a program under the label ‘making stars’ and we will work for the upcoming months to set our players in the picture. But we do it together with the players. They are part of the project and they are supporting it. Volleyball is a team sport and we have to work as a team»

-Let me take you back in the beginning of our conversation. Although you told me that you didn’t want ‘to think about ifs’, I have to ask if things will not go the way that you are expecting, are you willing to transform to a union that will make its own league like Euroleague?
«No! We want to play our role within the volleyball family not outside of it, I believe we will find a solution. If we can do it in the first time we will try again, and again… We don’t want to divide but to help the development of volleyball»

Οι απόψεις - editorial που δημοσιεύονται στο Sportsfeed απηχούν τις απόψεις των συγγραφέων και όχι του Sportsfeed το οποίο τηρεί πιστά τις αρχές της ελευθεροτυπίας: Η δημοσίευση είναι η ψυχή της δικαιοσύνης. Copyright © 2022 Sportsfeed.gr

*/