Dear Roundnet Community,
We have noticed the feedback around the EURA Grand Slam in Freiburg. That’s why we would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things:
The tournament in Freiburg is an EURA Grand Slam and not a Roundnet Germany Tour Stop. This was communicated from the beginning and we had little to no part in the planning until a few days ago (due to the placement of information on our Player Zone). Since the organizers are the EURA and the Black Forest Monkeys Freiburg, we never wanted to actively impose ourselves. At the same time, we were of course available for questions and assistance, which were hardly used. We as the board of Roundnet Germany have received some vague information, but finally we learned about the final tournament size at the same time as you and were also surprised and can therefore understand the reactions. Even if some formulations lacked appreciation for the voluntary work of those involved.
The decision to award the Grand Slam to Freiburg and not to Münster or Hamburg, which also applied and offered significantly more spots, surprised us at the beginning of the year and we still consider this not to be the best available option back then. At the latest when it seemed to be known quite early (first short communication in January, confirmed at the beginning of April) that only one day and a quite small field of participants can be offered, EURA should have reacted from our point of view. Although in general we absolutely trust Freiburg to organize a big tournament (as they have proven that at the German Championships 2019): Münster proved last year with the hosting of the German Championships 2021 (with 192 teams) to be able to host a tournament of the size over two days, is now also doing so one weekend before the Grand Slam and had the possibility to move the date. Hamburg has also proven a convincing concept for our Masters tournament (with 127 teams) and with early announcement, rescheduling might have been possible here as well, if we and Hamburg had been asked.
Together with the awarding of the remaining Grand Slams to Cluj, Riga and Sheffield, we got the impression that – to put it cautiously – not necessarily the best overall package (location, infrastructure, size and quality of the field, etc.) for the players in Europe was taken into account when awarding the tournament. But we didn’t feel like it was our task and humanly right to impose ourselves without being asked, to “attack” the decisions of the EURA and to work for (and thus against the EURA and our friends from Freiburg) another allocation of the Grand Slams, which by the way is not in our power at all. Therefore we didn’t do this and we won’t do this now in the case of Freiburg, only because this Grand Slam takes place on German soil.
We can’t and we don’t want to correct the decisions of the EURA and we don’t believe that in the long run something will change on the bigger level, even if we would try to spontaneously find another host, which would be almost impossible from our point of view. Rather, we believe that the examples of Grand Slams show how much work we still have to do in Europe to establish a stable, functioning EURA. And that means investing time ourselves instead of complaining about others who are already active and certainly doing their best. Therefore we would be happy if for the next opportunity many new people can be found to support the EURA. From Germany and from all over Europe!
Your board of Roundnet Germany