Mozda nas Uefa 'mrzi'
,ali nas 'CEV' voli
Osaka, Japan, November 13, 2006: The President of the European Volleyball Confederation, Andre Meyer, has offered his congratulations to surprise package Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) for reaching the semi-finals of the women's World Championships.
Ranked 30th in the world and playing in their first World Championships since 1978, SCG won all five matches in the first round and lost just once in four second-round matches to qualify for the last four.
The three other semi-finalists -- Brazil, Russia and Italy -- are ranked second, third and fourth, respectively, by the FIVB, which puts SCG's achievement into perspective.
"Serbia and Montenegro is a newcomer and of course we are very happy about the matches they are playing here," Meyer said in Osaka on Monday afternoon.
"Being among the last four is a top result for the team. We were expecting them to be challenging at the European Championships next year, and nobody could know they would do such a good job at the World Championships."
The President of the Luxembourg-based CEV put SCG's success in Japan down to their work lower down the volleyball ladder.
"They have done a lot of good work, especially in the youth and juniors, and the results here are based on the excellent job done by the federation's youth development activities."
Next up for SCG is Brazil in the semi-finals on Wednesday. The Brazilians are favourites to win their first World Championships gold medal after beating all nine opponents in the first and second rounds, including Russia on Sunday.
But Meyer is not writing off Serbia and Montenegro's chances of beating the reigning World Grand Prix champions and World Grand Champions Cup holders.
"In my opinion they have a chance," he says.
"I think they have nothing to lose. They are assured of fourth place already and this is super for the team. They can play without any complex against Brazil."
The fact that three of the four semi-finalists are from Europe is also a matter of pride for the confederation president.
"It's perfect," he says.
"I am really very happy from the confederation's side because all our eight teams won through to the second round and only two have gone out, Poland and Azerbaijan.
"That means we have six teams in the top 12 in the world."
As well as semi-finalists Russia, Italy and Serbia and Montenegro, Europe's three other teams in the classification matches are Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands.