Scottish Volleyball has been selected to host Round 2 of the CEV Beach Continental Cup on 19-21st September at Portobello Beach. The Continental Cup is also part of the qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
This will be Scotland’s first Home International Competition and the challenges are tough, however a competition of this magnitude can only be good for the development of the sport in Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole.
The CEV Beach Continental Cup – 2nd Round will be played following the “country vs. country” format that has received the appreciation and positive review of players, fans and media alike. Teams were drawn by taking into account their ranking in the 1st Round as well as the geographical distribution already used for the previous stage of the competition. On top of this, National Federations competing in both genders were placed in the same Pool; countries ranked 3rd in the 1st Round and coming from the same pool were automatically placed into different groups.
In the Men’s competition, Scotland is joined by Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Ireland. While in the Women’s competition, Scotland will face England, Northern Ireland and Ireland. The winners and runners-up of each 2nd Round Pool will join the 1st and 2nd placed of the 1st Round tournaments as well as the top eight (8) National Federations from the CEV Country Ranking as of December 31, 2013 (Men: Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Germany, Latvia, Spain, Austria and Russia; Women: Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Spain) to compose the 32 teams that will contest the 3rd Round of the competition next year.
This is a great opportunity to showcase our Beach Volleyball National Teams in our country and I hope you will be there to support them in their quest for qualification to Round 3 and furthermore to the Golden sands of Rio.