Vanishing Teams

2003. Július 23. 22:15

Hungarian Volleyball in Crisis

The Hungarian Volleyball Federation (MRSz) runs its top level national league under the name “Extraliga”. Recently it takes an “Extra-effort” to get enough teams together to compete in it.

Volleyball has a long and successful tradition in Hungary. Among others, the Women’s National Team finished fourth at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, under the guidance of coach Jozsef Forman the girls reached fifth place at the Junior World Championships in Brazil in the nineties. Recently, the men’s National Team established itself among the bests in Europe and the women’s team of NRK Nyíregyháza missed out the quarter-finals phase of the Indesit European Champions League by one set only last season. Despite these international successes the local competition is in a deep crisis. The first bad signal came in 1999, when the reigning women’s champion Vértes Volán Tatabánya withdrew from the 1999/2000 season. Two years later, Egut Eger, the most successful women’s club of the nineties, which finished runner-up the season before, threw the towel, as well. Since Tatabánya disappeared, the Women’s Extraliga has become a race for the second place as no team could compete against the dominance of Nyíregyháza. The local championship got even more lopsided, when their only tough rival, Eger withdraw from the league. Nyíregyháza won the Extraliga four time in a row for good. For next season, the Extraliga is still looking for a team! The eight-team-league has only seven participants, although the entry deadline was July 15. Szeged was relegated from the league and Haladás Szombathely one the right to get promoted to the highest class. But either Haladás nor Szeged or any other team is ready to play in Extraliga. The men’s scene is even more disappointing. Five years ago, there were eight teams in the men’s Extraliga, too. There are no more than five left for next season. For the last four seasons, the league was a tight battle of six teams of almost equal strength, although the former champs Szeged got considerably weaker about two years ago and lost ground compared with the other five teams. But it seems, that Szeged will be able to improve from 6th to 5th place next year - due to the withdrawal of 1999 champions Nyíregyháza. Considering the above mentioned successes, the Hungarian stars at international level (Sándor Kántor, Dömötör Mészáros, Péter Veres and Mariann Nagy) and on the other hand the vanishing teams, it is no surprise, that a survey conducted by FIVB came to the conclusion, that MRSz should improve its marketing and PR activities to enhance the image and the popularity of the sport in Hungary. Unfortunately though, nothing has been done by the federation.