Il sorteggio dei cinque gironi di 2018 CEV Champions League verrà trasmesso in diretta dal portale www.laola1.tv
Trento, November 16th 2017
The first official act of the 8th participation of Trentino Volley at CEV Champions League, will be celebrated on Friday November 17th in Moscow. The drawing of the 5 pools for the Main Phase of the 2018 edition of the highest European competition for the Clubs will take place in the Russian capital starting from 16 (Italian local time).
20 Teams will be put in the urn: the 12 top seeds directly admitted to the group stage (among them is Trentino Volley, which will play with the name “Trentino Diatec”) and the 8 classified from the preliminary matches. Each of the 5 pool will consist of 4 Societies. The draw will begin by defining the grouping of the 8 teams classified in the preliminary matches, then there will be the drawing of the two teams which will occupy the third bracket among the 12 top seeds (Izmir and Belchatow).
Thereafter it will be the turn of the other top seeds, before the 5 of second bracket (among them Trento) and then the 5 of first bracket. Top seeds coming from the same country won’t be drawn in the same pool, while there won’t be further nationality restrictions for the teams coming from the preliminary phase. Trentino Diatec, qualified as top seed in the pool phase thanks to the second place in SuperLega 2016/17, won’t be allowed to stay in the same pool of Cucine Luba but potentially could be placed in the pool of Sir Safety Colussi Perugia, third Italian team who have just achieved the qualification by getting through the third preliminary match.
Here the composition of the first three drawing brackets:
First bracket: Zenit Kazan (Russia), Cucine Lube Civitanova (Italy), Halkbank Ankara (Turkey), Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), Chaumont Vb 52 Haute Marne (France).
Second bracket: Knack Roeselare (Belgium), Berlin Recycling Volleys (Germany), Paok Thessaloniki (Greece), Dinamo Moscow (Russia), Trentino Diatec (Italy).
Third bracket: Arkas Izmir (Turkey ), PGE Skra Belchatow (Poland) and three other teams drawn between the eight ones that qualified after the third preliminary round.
The eight teams that qualified after the third preliminary round: Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (Russia), Sir Safety Colussi Perugia (Italy), Fenerbahce SK Istanbul (Turkey), Jastrzebski Wegiel (Poland), Spacer’s Toulouse Vb (France), Noliko Maaseik (Belgium), VfB Friedrichshafen (Germany), Ford Store Levoranta Sastamala (Finland).
The group stage is starting on December 5th 2017, and it will end on February 28th 2018. The two teams that will rank in the first and second position of each one of the five pools and the two best teams that will rank at the third position will have access to the next round (the so called Playoffs 12). The location of the Final Four hasn't been decided yet (it will happen on May 5th or 6th 2018). It will be organized by one of the teams that will pass the first phase. We'll only know which one will decide after the end of the Main Phase. During the drawing, that will be broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the CEV and in streaming on the website www.laola1.tv, individual prizes will be awarded to the best European players and the best European coaches of the year 2017.
Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office
