NEVZA post-pandemic restart

The pandemic may still be there, but life start getting back in and between the NEVZA countries. A physical General Assembly was held in Katowice on September 17th and under-age volleyball tournaments will be arranged in October.

The NEVZA General Assembly 2021 was held in Katowice prior to the CEV Congress and the finals in EuroVolley Men. It was the first physical meeting for more than two years. All participating countries were very enthusiastic to come back after the pandemic. The meeting was presided by NEVZA President and CEV board member Lennart Neovius in pair with NEVZA General Secretary Jussi Jokinen.
CEV board members Eric Adler, DEN, and Michel Everaert, NED, were also participating in the meeting and contributed to the discussions. The upcoming events in the three disciplines was discussed, the two under-age volleyball starting this autumn. A special start-up deposit of 2,500 EUR was decided in order to encourage the members to participate in as many competitions as possible.
Lennart Neovius and Jussi Jokinen were re-elected for the coming two years.

After a long period with closed borders in the NEVZA countries, the first volleyball tournaments will now be played. First of all, four teams in age-group U17 boys and girls will compete in Ikast, Denmark. The host, Norway, Faroe Islands and Island will show their skills during three days, 18th-20th October.
Match schedule (G=girls, B=boys):
18/10 09:00 NOR – FAR G, 11:00 DEN – ISL G, 13:00 DEN – ISL B, 15:00 NOR – FAR B, 17:00 ISL – FAR G, 19:00 DEN – NOR G
19/10 09:00 FAR – ISL B, 11:00 DEN – NOR B, 13:00 DEN – FAR G, 15:00 NOR – ISL G, 17:00 NOR – ISL B, 19:00 DEN – FAR B
20/10 09:00 3rd place G, 11:00 3rd place B, 13:30 Final G, 15:30 Final B

The second post-pandemic tournament is the under-age U19 volleyball competition in Rovaniemi, Finland on October 29th-31st. As per today, all NEVZA members will participate in the girls’ tournament, and all but GRL in the boys’ tournament. So it will be a tough match schedule in during the three days of competition. Match schedule is still to be decided.

Moving on into 2022, we look forward to see the Nations Champions Cup in a new format, a beach volleyball tour and under-age tournaments, and homologated snow volleyball national championships leading to participation in the EuroVolley. Several other initiatives are in the planning phase, therefore we can look forward to an interesting volleyball year withing NEVZA and Europe.