Her fight for equal opportunities and fair nominations lasted two and a half years.

In the meantime, the beach volleyball players Kim van de Velde (née Behrens) and Cinja Tillmann also looked like a success.

But in the end they failed with their claim for damages against the German Volleyball Association (DVV).

The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt (OLG) dismissed the complaint of the athletes in the last instance.

The district court had previously ruled in favor of the players.

The DVV had appealed against this.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

Tillmann/Behrens had resisted the fact that in the summer of 2019 they were obviously disadvantaged by the association when nominated for international tournaments at world tour level.

They were not allowed to play in seven events, although they thought they had qualified for it according to the world rankings.

Only four teams per nation are allowed to participate in a tournament at this level.

The top three are seeded.

Elimination games are usually played for fourth place.

However, the Germans avoided this "country quota".

DVV sports director Niclas Hildebrand simply canceled Behrens/Tillmann in order not to jeopardize the Olympic chances of the other German duos who competed under the Labal "national team".

monopoly position of the association

As a result, the private team missed out on five-digit fees and prize money, which they demanded back.

The district court had already followed her view on October 7, 2020.

It put the losses at at least 17,000 dollars (16,122 euros) and sentenced the DVV to pay damages.

The association has a monopoly and is therefore obliged “to standardize everyone for competitions who meets the requirements for the granting of services”.

The Higher Regional Court now assessed the facts differently: "A claim for damages could only have been awarded if it could be determined that the association should have nominated the plaintiffs for each tournament." However, this is not the case.

It could "ultimately remain open as to whether the association abused its dominant position," it said.

The decision is no longer contestable, although the Higher Regional Court concedes: "Doubts were appropriate insofar as the association, in determining preferred teams for the entire year 2019, paid too little attention to the world ranking points achieved by the plaintiffs and thus to the performance principle. "

"We are glad that the process is now complete," said DVV board member Julia Frauendorf after the decision.

Regardless of the verdict, the nomination criteria of the DVV would be checked.

The "country quota" has already been reintroduced.

The two athletes had impressively demonstrated their skills despite the blockade by the association.

As substitutes, they won the European Championship title in 2020.

After that they parted.

In the meantime, Kim Behrens has married the Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde.

In the spring, the 29-year-old became a mother.

Cinja Tillmann has also changed her status.

The 30-year-old now plays together with 21-year-old Svenja Müller – as a national team.