The management of the Swiss women’s volleyball club, Volero Zürich has decided to relocate the first team of the club to another country and France will be their target. Such a plan should be finalized in 4 to 6 weeks.
Volero President, Stav Jacobi explained in an interview by World of Volley: “We saw that, in the past several years, Volero Zürich was not able to make a step forward to win the Champions League or the Club World Championship despite an enormous strength of our team. We are pretty sure that weakness of our Swiss League, which led to 13 years of the domination of Volero, prevented us from achieving a sufficient strength in the crucial moments in international competitions.”
For the reason why choosing France to relocate, Jacobi explained: ““Based on the careful evaluation we did, France, next to Germany, are our targets. We took into consideration all Leagues which we believe will be stronger than our local. Namely (sorted by strength): Turkish, Italian, Russian, Polish, French, Romanian, and German. Based on many parameters, we came to the above-mentioned conclusion. Preferably, we should relocate to France because, for years, Volero Zürich have very strong partnerships with a couple of leading clubs. We believe that the factors such as – strength of the league, good infrastructure, administrative and financial support from the local authority, an experience of winning the Champions League as the French club – give us good chances to make a step forward in the realization of our sporting ambitions.”
The club has been established in 1973 as VBC Voléro Zürich but with the men’s team being favored compared to the women’s. The women’s team separated itself from VBC Voléro Zürich in 2003 and was professionalized under the new name – Volero Zürich AG. Soon afterward, they became the untouchables in Switzerland. At the same time, big names of the world volleyball started to arrive in the club. Jacobi emphasized that their decision to relocate only the women’s professional team. All other units such as the Headquarters and Center of Formation will stay in Zürich. He said it’s very important that the City of Zürich will continue to be one of the volleyball centers in Switzerland.
The final decision will be made by the end of February the latest, if the team confirmed to relocate to France, then Volero will compete in the Ligue Nationale du Volley next season.
Photo: CEV
Source: World of Volley
