SPRING CUP HISTORY

Spring Cup (SC) is an annual volleyball tournament for European men's and women's national teams. It is the only tournament officially accepted by the Confederation of European Volleyball (CEV).
CEV members include the volleyball federations of 54 European countries. FIVB, the international volleyball federation has 217 member federations.
The first SC men's tournament was held in 1962 in Belgium. Women's teams met for the first time in Germany in 1972.
The number of participating teams has ranged from 4 (in the initial years of the tournament) to 18.
During its history of 41 years, the tournament has been held in 25 European countries.
In 2004 the women's tournament will be held in Czech Republic and men's tournament in Estonia.
A new European championships cycle will begin in 2004, bringing up to 16 European top-level teams to Estonia.

2004 - MENS TOURNAMENT IN ESTONIA

13 European national teams are expected to participate in Spring Cup 2004 held from 29 April to 5 May.
The teams will be divided into four preliminary pools who will play as follows:
* In Tallinn (Audentes Sports Hall/Kalev Sports Centre) - two pools
* In Tartu (Tartu University Sports Centre) - one pool (if necessary)
Two best teams from each preliminary pool get to play in the final tournament (in Tallinn). Third rankings in each preliminary pool will play for places 9 to 12 and fourth teams will play for places 13 to 16.
There will be a total of 36 high-level volleyball games held during the tournament. 6 of them would feature the Estonian national team.
According to the plans, there will be TV broadcasts of the competitions, including at least 1 games of the Estonian team.