“Kommunalnik” volleyball club next door to closure: are players to be shipwrecked?

The most honoured volleyball club of the country is facing closure.

The reason is, there is no money for financing of “Kommunalnik.” In case the team won’t find Br3 billion, it is to be dissolved, Vecherny Gomel writes.

Alarm was raised by fans and relatives of players. Ivan Pyatrovoch and Valyantsina Iosifovna called to the editorial office of the local newspaper and told that the club is facing closure. Now all volleyball players are in a leave, they have received their employment record books with the entry “Fired.”

However, such a situation is characteristic of many Hrodna-based clubs every year: players finish the season, they are fired with the aim of money economizing, and after the leave they are invited to sign a contract again. But now the situation is as tense as never before, and volleyball scene is talking about dissolving the club, as there is no money for is maintaining.

Over the previous season the team was tossed about, and as a result the volleyball tema from Hrodna took the fifth position only. There have not been such a performance in the history of the team, the club was in the top three almost all the time. That’s all because the make-up of the team has changed considerably as compared to the last year: young and less experienced players replaced experienced ones. The leaders, Abukhovich, Kurash and Zabarouski, were unable to make “Kommunalnik” a prize winner.

- Two volleyball players from the national team are playing in our team, – Ivan Pyatrovich is puzzled. He shows a paper with a list of champion titles, Cups of the country and medal places of “Kommunalnik” since 1994 is written. – We can lose the club with traditions overnight.

Besides traditions, the city is at risk of losing the influx of young players, today the Specialized Children and Youth Sports School of the Olympic Reserve named after A. Sapeha, which had prepared future Olympic champions and world champions, has about 600 students.

Its director Mikalai Zahudullin says that in case “Kommunalnik” stops its existence, there will be no place for future graduates. They would have to play in the first league of the country’s championship, and it is a much lower level.