Crucial Cuba-Italy showdown named
“match of the week”
 Lausanne,
Switzerland, June 22, 2005 – The top of
the table showdown in Pool B between
Cuba and Italy in Havana will have fans
in living rooms around the world glued
to their seats after being selected as
the FIVB’s “match of the week” for Round
Five.
For the fifth week running, the FIVB
will provide a live satellite broadcast
of a key World League game and the
second match between Cuba and last
year’s silver medalists Italy on Sunday
26 June at 00:40 GMT (20:40 p.m.
Saturday night local time) in the "Ciudad
Deportiva" Coliseum, Havana has plenty
riding on it.
Both sides are level on 13 points with
five wins and three defeats so if one
side manages to do the double this
weekend they will take a handy lead
going into the final Intercontinental
Round next weekend for the race to win
the pool and claim the one ticket on
offer to the Final Round in Belgrade.
Pic: Cuba and Italy split their
matches in Round Two in Italy collecting
a 3-1 victory each
Although Cuba are ranked 16th in the
world and on paper are expected to find
it tough against the world number two,
the central Americans have been in
dazzling form in this competition with a
youthful energetic side entertaining
fans around the world. Italy, meanwhile,
have been going through a tough
rebuilding phase but are starting to
show the consistency which netted them
the Olympic silver medal and World
League runner’s up spot last year. Two
victories this weekend would be timely
for either side, with only two games
remaining after this weekend’s round.
For the Fourth Round of the World League
competition last weekend, the FIVB chose
to air Brazil’s 3-0 (25-21, 25-20,
25-23) defeat of Portugal in Brasília
and it proved to be hugely popular with
a potential transmission range of over
100 million households worldwide.
The Pool A showdown became the first
World League match to be broadcasted by
four Asian (Macau, Vientnam, Mongolia,
Sri Lanka) television channels outside
of Japan with other new television
channels including TV5 Mongolia, VTC
Vietnam and TV Sport Romania. It was
also the first time that a single World
League match of the Intercontinental
Round was broadcasted by 12 television
channels.
Through 3 July, a "match of the week"
will be available on the EBU (European
Broadcasting Union) satellite each
weekend, so that television networks
throughout the world can broadcast an
eagerly-awaited match.
Interested TV networks may acquire
broadcasting rights to the match by
contacting Sports TV Media Distribution
in Klagenfurt, Austria (tel. +43 463 90
8000; +43 676 848 606 220; +43 676 848
606 217; fax +43 463 90 8000 99; e-mail:
worldleague@stvmd.com).
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