"In 2007 when we were champions of Europe there was a media boom. Many people saw the final on television, when we returned, journalists were waiting for us at the airport ... The fact is that two weeks later most of the players played the Spanish Super Cup in Laredo And we thought that the pavilion would be full or, at least, almost full. But we arrived and there were only 40 people. They had not put up advertising for the tournament, not even posters around the city, it had not appeared in almost any media ... Then I said that volleyball was letting itself die and it was somewhat controversial, but it was the truth, "recalls
José Luis Moltó
, that giant who 14 years ago blocked rival shots, about the rarity, the incredible rarity, perhaps the greatest rarity of Spanish sport.
Today the semifinals of the European men's volleyball are played, Spain is not in them and it is not a bad result; its the tradition. Since that success in 2007, the team only aspires to celebrate a victory in the first phase of the Europeans - this time, against Macedonia, they do not qualify for the World Cups, much less for the Olympic Games and the same thing happens, or even worse, with the women's team. Despite the 90,000 federated -more than in athletics, handball, cycling, tennis ...- Spain does not exist in the elite and there is only one question: Why?
"There are boys and especially girls playing, there is talent, but there is no organization or investment. We have been with the same people in the Federation for 21 years and everything is flawed. We think we work well and it is not like that, quite the opposite. Coaches are needed first level, meaningful concentrations and above all going to international competitions. We must once again generate an elite dynamic. To beat Russia in that final of the 2007 European Championship we had to lose against them 15 times before. Spain has to go either whatever the League of Nations, for example, to play hard against the best ", explains
Rafa Pascual
, the best Spanish player in history, who denies that the problem stems from the 2008 economic crisis, which hit several clubs, or from the lack of a generational replacement: "The crisis also affected handball or water polo and there they are their national teams, despite the problems. And don't tell me that now a new Rafa Pascual is missing because I was not a superman or even a 2.10 meter player. I was only part of a group that had good technicians, that he was able to compete abroad and he wanted volleyball to grow. "
Pascual tried to remove President
Agustín Martín
, in office since 2000, in the last two elections to the
Royal Spanish Volleyball
Federation (RFEVB), but both times he failed. If he had won, his plan was to convince the players that they would be part of a solid project and that in the future, they would play Games and World Cups. Now resignations from the national team are the order of the day because the future is gray and being international does not pay off.
"There are players who stop going to the national team in summer because they earn more as a waiter, even if they are paid 900 euros per month," reveals Moltó, the second Spanish player with the most caps only behind Pascual himself. "Now perhaps they receive 150 euros a week, the money is invested in other things. Although I also think that most would play even for free if there was a goal. That is what is most needed", adds Pascual with a certainty: "Yes teams are not in the big competitions, the sport does not have visibility and disappears ".
While volleyball maintains good health in schools and Spain still stands out in the training categories - in fact the current generation was runner-up in the junior world - the men's Super League and the women's Super League are languishing.
Barely 1,000 spectators gather in the pavilions, professionalism is taken with a grain of salt and the best young people have to make a living abroad, such as
Ángel Trinidad
(Italy, Germany, Belgium, France and now Poland) or
Andrés Villena
(Italy, France and South Korea).
It is nothing that does not happen in sports like handball, but in the 40x20 the national team is a place where young people will grow, not suffer.
"Right now we can give thanks that there are still girls playing volleyball. In everything else we have gone back to the 80s," concludes Pascual.
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