It's time for volleyball. Or - it's time again. One sentence could paraphrase what the president of the Volleyball Association of Montenegro is Nikola Kazic said in a recent interview for "Vijesti".
And indeed, at the beginning of this millennium, volleyball was a very serious sport in our country. Four of the last six champions of the former joint state, which was the Olympic champion in 2000, were given by Montenegro - Budućnost Podgorička banka and Budvanska riviera were clubs of European caliber, the time of their greatest rivalry is one of the most important sequences of Montenegrin sports in recent decades.
Over time, everything was lost, but no collective sport in Montenegro has suffered as much as volleyball. This especially applies to clubs and the domestic league. Is it time to change that too?
- I think it is already changing - says Nikola Kažić.
Optimism is based on realistic indicators: Montenegrin clubs, both men's and women's, will soon get the opportunity to play in the regional MEVZA league for the first time, the national team, both men's and women's, will be part of the Golden European League for the first time in history. A special "trump card" is women's volleyball, which is the most popular women's sport in Montenegro, and our ladies are on the threshold of their first, historic placement at the European Championship.
It is up to the Volleyball Federation, Kažić points out, to create the climate and atmosphere so that volleyball returns to the place it deserves to be.
- It is not difficult to make that comparison. In those 2000s, our clubs played in a strong league, with Vojvodina, Crvena zvezda and others, Podgorica and Budva invested serious money in their clubs. The Bank of Podgorica helped the club with hundreds of thousands of euros annually, which was enough for Budućnost to be a European club in all respects - even now players from the side who played then in Podgorica say that even in the present time that club would be among the Top five or 10 in Europe, both in terms of organization and quality. Budva Riviera, on the other hand, as a state-owned company, was the majority sponsor of the club, along with various influential people who helped at the time. When you have such strong clubs, then you also have younger categories, you also have a system of work - the national competitions at younger ages have always been of high quality. Now the clubs are in a completely different situation: not only those two, but also many others. It's ten times smaller investments, it's really not easy for clubs to function. Especially when you have globally popular sports such as football, basketball and tennis, and we know how popular women's handball and water polo are in our country, where we have achieved significant success. It is not easy to fight for money, it is not easy to fight with all that, but again I think that we are all making certain strides together and that we will continue to do so - emphasizes Kažić, who in June of this year inherited Cvetka Pajkovića at the head of the Volleyball Association.
If club volleyball suffered, the national team managed to keep up - three consecutive placements in the European Championship are a significant success and encouragement, regardless of the fact that the European Volleyball Federation (CEV) also "helped" by expanding the number of selections that play in the finals, regardless of the fact that low ranking, as things stand now, to be interrupted next summer.
Kazić is convinced that in 2027, our men's selection will return to the biggest European competition, and that in 2025, it will be "replaced" for the first time - by women.
- The dream of all of us is certainly the placement of the women's national team at the European Championship, and we have a great chance there. There are two games left, against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Latvia, where mathematically one victory is enough for us. Taking into account the mass - the fact that most girls in Montenegro practice volleyball, it would significantly help to finally put women's volleyball in its rightful place, to slowly raise it along with women's handball. We are also very optimistic because the average of the national team is less than 22 years old. We have a national team that is both the present and the future - believes Kažić.
In just 20 days, and not so long ago, in November, two pieces of news resounded that could have a decisive importance in the return project - the quality, popularization and importance of volleyball. The best Montenegrin clubs, both male and female, will join the regional league, and both national teams won the right to play in the strong Golden European League.
- For the first time since independence, Montenegrin clubs will have the right to play in a regional league, and a very strong league, with clubs from Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic... I am sure that this will have an impact on putting volleyball in Montenegro on a significant level. level, which could also interest sponsors, because the league is played in a region where many serious companies operate. The luck in the accident is that volleyball does not require megalomaniacal investments as in some other sports, it is an easier variant that I am sure someone will recognize. Of course, we as the Alliance will insist that it be on a higher level through our influence, through local self-governments and the state. I honestly believe that after all it somehow belongs to volleyball. I believe that now is the moment - for the next three or four years to be a flywheel for the development of volleyball, which needs to place itself in a serious place in Montenegrin sports - emphasizes Nikla Kažić.
The strong matches that both the men's and women's teams will play in the Golden European League could significantly help on that path.
- The national teams will play in the Golden European League for the first time, which is a big step forward for our volleyball. In most matches, we will play against stronger teams than ourselves. For our young senior teams, this is a crucial thing. Because without strong matches, there is no progress. Some defeats teach you more than victories. In the Silver League in previous years, we lost only to Portugal, who won the league, and to the host Austria in the semi-finals in Graz. The point is not that we beat five or six teams that are weaker than ours, but we really need big matches - and regardless of our youth, both in men's and women's competition, I am convinced that through big games we can reach the level of winning matches in the Golden League as well.
Appointment of new selectors, also in November - Jovo Caković took over the woman, Ivica Jevtic men's national team, are also related to the project of returning volleyball to an important place in Montenegrin sports.
- In the men's competition, we only have a theoretical chance to qualify for the EP, and that is one of the reasons, considering the obligations that await us in the coming years, why we decided to give a chance to the new coach. This year and the next, he will have time to get the boys used to his work, for them to enter his system so that we can once again attack for the European Championship in 2027. It is realistic for us to do it - we have a lot of young guys who are already playing abroad and who are yet to mature.
The national team is a product, but clubs should be - a service.
- There is no doubt that the engine of development of Montenegrin volleyball must be the clubs - the Federation is there to protect the national team, to provide all possible conditions, to implement its policies, but it is always the clubs that make the players, they spend 10 months a year in them. The national team should serve as a stepping stone and fight in Europe with very high-quality rivals. But the base always comes from the clubs, as it did in the 2000s - said Kažić.
The volleyball association has been working for a long time to popularize volleyball...
"For the eighth year, the Association has been implementing the most massive project for children in sports, which is Eco mini volleyball, and almost a thousand girls and boys between the ages of nine and 12 compete in it. And it's a wonderful picture when they come - it's played on three courts at the same time, it is played every other weekend, and it is interesting that we get children interested in volleyball very early, it is played on a shortened four-on-four court, without a table and imperative results, and it is a project that we are proud of and which everyone likes. Also, in the north, and now we have started in the central part and in the south, we are conducting a free volleyball school, which aims to interest boys and to animate the clubs, all with the support of the ministries of sports and education."
We are the most popular sport in women's competition
Women's volleyball should experience a boom. And he's already experiencing it...
- We are the most popular sport in women's competition, the most girls in Montenegro practice volleyball. We have as many as 25 clubs in the pioneer league. This is not the case only here - it is like that everywhere in Europe. We also have the example of America, which is creating a professional women's league, for the first time after football and basketball. They also recognized the business variant - stresses Kažić.
Apart from the fact that the women's national team of Montenegro is one step away from qualifying for the European Championship, the clubs have also started to develop in the right way.
- Herceg Novi recently played in the Champions League qualifiers, it is a club that has serious investments, a serious team, that performs seriously. They played against the Polish team Lodz, by far the best team in the qualifiers, and I think that if anyone else had been drawn, they could have gone through it. Even those games they played great. Our women's volleyball is on the right track - Kažić is convinced.
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