News
World’s top league (La Lega) coming to London
27th Jan 2010
Richmond Volleyball executives traveled to Italy last weekend to develop their partnership with Verona Volleyball (a top professional volleyball club) and in so doing also greatly furthered their relationship with the world’s top professional league La Lega Serie A.
They held successful talks with the La Lega President, Mauro Fabris and the General Manager, Marco Brunale about the future working together- and primarily about bringing a professional event to London. The event will see the glamour of the top Italian Professional Women’s Volleyball Clubs and the British Women’s Volleyball Team competing in a pre-season tournament (La Lega London Trophy 2010) for October 2010. This will be the first time professional female volleyball has been showcased in the UK.
In Italy volleyball is the second most practiced team sport, second only to football! Due to the sheer dominance of volleyball in Italy (men and women) they have more registered volleyball players than football. This is thanks to the success of the national teams’, both male and female teams have celebrated Olympic and World champion status. The Italian Women are 2007 European Women’s Volleyball Championships and the 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup gold medal winners.
La Lega is recognized as world’s top Professional Volleyball league for both women and men and has a strong following in the UK through its international communities. It is currently a 16 team league that plays a 30 game schedule from September to April. The top two teams of Serie A1 quality to CEV European Champions League (top competition for men's and women’s volleyball clubs in Europe with prize money up to one million Euro’s for the CEV winners).
The Richmond Executive team also attended the SEAT All Star match organized by the Italian Women’s Volleyball League in collaboration with Verona Volleyball Club at Palaolimpico Sport Stadium with 5,000 lively spectators and a further 10 million people watched the game live on SKY Italy. The match was won by the World All Stars against the National Italian Women’s team (ranked 4th in the world).
David Rijvers Richmond Volleyball Club Chairman commented – this is a very exciting time for us and British Volleyball bringing the equivalent of the NBA and NFL to London tapping into new markets and judging by the strong following in the UK through its international communities it will be a great success. We are in talks with La Lega and Verona Volley about further joint events; The Rising Stars Junior Tournament (July) will involve some of the best junior club teams in Europe, followed by a 2 week Technical Volleyball Coaching Course (August) and then the La Lega London Trophy 2010.
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