The president of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Lubomir Ganev spoke about the performance of the women's national team in the League of Nations, reported Sportal.bg.
Bulgaria recorded 2 wins and 10 defeats in 12 matches this year in the strong tournament.
"Even with our best players like Elitsa Vasileva, Lora Kitipova and Hristina Vuchkova, our team once entered the League of Nations and was immediately relegated. The current young team will compete in the tournament for the fourth year in a row. We took seventh place at the European Championship, and with the old team we did not achieve such a result. Never mind that we were much stronger as a unit back then. We must give due credit to the young players who will make their way in big volleyball.
We all know that we have to play together as a unit when we are physically weaker than the opponent. The goal was to play as many young contestants as possible. To gain experience and confidence that they can play certain situations when faced with stronger opponents. We managed to cope with this task. I wanted to and we had a chance to win more matches and another game. I wish these athletes to be healthy and have the desire to play in the national team. This year is already over for the women's team. When we have more clarity, we will set the goals for next year as well," Ganev told the media.
The long-time leader also touched on the differences in views on preparation between coaches and athletes.
"When (women's national team coach) Lorenzo Micelli came, he promised that during the preparation he would give each of the players five days off. Not during the race itself. I have personally spent an hour and 15 minutes talking with female athletes when they wanted to take their children to the hotel with the team during the European Championships. I have been to many championships and this cannot be done. It is not right. We managed to introduce some rules for everyone to follow. Now the door of the national team is not closed to anyone, but there are certain rules", Lyubomir Ganev also said.