2014–15 CEV Champions League explained

2014–15 CEV Champions League
League:	CEV Champions League
Sport:	Volleyball
No Of Teams:	28
Finals:	Finals
Finals Venue:	Berlin
Finals Champ:	Zenit Kazan
Finals Mvp:	Wilfredo León
Seasonslistnames:	CEV Champions League
Prevseason Link:	2013–14 CEV Champions League
Prevseason Year:	2013–14
Nextseason Link:	2015–16 CEV Champions League
Nextseason Year:	2015–16

The 2014–15 CEV Champions League was the 56th edition of the highest level European volleyball club competition organised by the European Volleyball Confederation.

Participating teams

Rank	Number of teams	Teams
1	3	Cucine Lube Treia Sir Safety Perugia Copra Volley Piacenza
2	3	PGE Skra Bełchatów Asseco Resovia Jastrzębski Węgiel
3	3	Zenit Kazan Lokomotiv Novosibirsk Belogorie Belgorod
4	2	Halkbank Ankara Fenerbahçe SK Istanbul
5	3	Knack Roeselare Precura Antwerpen Noliko Maaseik
6	2	Berlin Recycling Volleys VfB Friedrichshafen
7	2	Tours VB Paris Volley
8	1	Olympiacos Piraeus
9	2	Hypo Tirol Innsbruck Posojilnica Aich/Dob
10	1	Tomis Constanța
12	1	ACH Volley Ljubljana
13	1	CAI Teruel
14	1	Marek Union-Ivkoni Dupnitsa
15	1	Jihostroj České Budějovice
16	1	Budvanska Rivijera Budva
17	1	Dragons Lugano

League round

28 teams have been drawn to 7 pools of 4 teams each.

In each pool, the competition is organised on the basis of a double round-robin system. Each team will thus play 6 matches: twice against each opponent.

In the League Round, the placing of the teams is determined by the number of matches won.

In case of a tie in the number of matches won by two or more teams, they will be ranked on the basis of the following criteria:

match points;
set quotient (the number of total sets won divided by the number of total sets lost);
points quotient (the number of total points scored divided by the number of total points lost);
results of head-to-head matches between the teams in question.

Match points are awarded as follows:

3 points for a 3:0 or 3:1 victory;
2 points for a 3:2 victory;
1 point for a 2:3 defeat;
0 points for a 1:3 or 0:3 defeat.

12 teams will qualify for the Playoff 12:

the winner of each pool, and
5 second-ranked teams with the best score.

After the end of the League Round, the organizer of the Final Four will be determined. That team will qualify directly for the Final Four. It will be replaced in Playoff 12 by the next best second-ranked team.

The remaining second-ranked team as well 3 third-ranked teams with the best score will move to the Challenge Round of the CEV Cup.

The remaining third-ranked and all fourth-ranked teams will be eliminated.

All times are local.

Pool G

Playoffs

The playoffs will consist of two rounds: Playoff 12 and Playoff 6. Each round is played in two legs. These will be played between 10 February and 12 March 2015.^[1]

If the teams are tied after two legs, a "Golden Set" is played. The winner is the team that first obtains 15 points, provided that the points difference between the two teams is at least 2 points (thus, the Golden Set is similar to a tiebreak set in a normal match).

At each leg, points are awarded to the teams in the same manner as in the Group Round (3 for 3:0 or 3:1, 2 for 3:2 etc.). So, if team A defeat team B in the first leg 3:0 and lose in the second leg 1:3, team A does not advance to the next round (as it would have been expected on the basis of analogy with football competitions), but the two teams are tied with 3 points each, and a Golden Set is played.

The three teams that win in Playoff 6 round advance to the Final Four along with the organizer of the Final Four, Berlin Recycling Volleys.^[2] Italy's Cucine Lube Treia replaced in the Playoffs 12 the organizer of the Final Four tournament as the lucky loser.^[1]

Pool	width=250	Winners	width=250	Second place
A	Tomis Constanța	Copra Volley Piacenza
B	Lokomotiv Novosibirsk	Jastrzębski Węgiel
C	Asseco Resovia	Berlin Recycling Volleys (F4 Hosts)
D	Zenit Kazan	VfB Friedrichshafen
E	Belogorie Belgorod	Cucine Lube Treia
F	PGE Skra Bełchatów
G	Sir Safety Perugia	Halkbank Ankara