National Women's Volleyball Team Beat Italy 3-2 and Became the Champion

Our National Women's Volleyball Team faced Italy in the final of the 2026 CEV Women's European Championship. The Sultans of the Net defeated the last Olympic Games and World Champion, Italy, 3-2 in 5 sets and achieved victory.

TVF President Mehmet Akif Üstündağ made a statement to HT Spor.

Regarding the discomfort he experienced in the match last night and his current situation:

"We don't have any problems, we continue where we left off. There was a drop in blood pressure. Sudden movements like this, this and that... And I don't know, that emotional moment of those girls, Vargas hugging, crying so angry, etc. probably affected us.

There is really a lot of effort. You know, on this path, on this path you are on, you have bad days, you have good days, there are ups and downs, not every day is the same, injuries happen.

These always come on top of each other, it's always an accumulation. Therefore, after that accumulation, I can say that when you deserve this beautiful victory, there is extreme joy in it. Thank God, there is no problem.

You make a start in the second set, you become partners in the match. We play a bad set again in the third set. We cannot play the game we expected there either, and from there we begin to decline. You come out again in the fourth set. I noticed this in that fourth set: We started to widen the difference. "I realized there that these kids will not stop fighting until the last ball."

"THE ONLY ONE MISSING IS THE OLYMPICS"

"There was even a 1 percent chance of this status in the Olympics. Of course, your points would fall behind, you would get bad results in the tournaments, you might not be among the 12; then you had a risk. But now you have no risk. We need to concentrate completely on the Olympics until the Olympics. Because that is the only thing we are missing. We have become accustomed to the Nations League. We are a team that always plays in the final, always takes part in the Final Four, always takes part in the final stage. Here, we need to plan well. As the technical staff, we want to realize and implement this plan in the best way possible, and achieve the Olympic goal, and complete that missing medal at the Olympics."

"Our statements about Terzic in the last two matches have probably become a trending topic. There have been no positive events regarding Terzic. He has been sarcastic and taunting us for a month, sometimes even 3-5 months ago...

Now you criticize Vargas for playing in the Turkish National Team, but you also criticize the successes you experienced while coaching Fenerbahçe; While you are eating bread, earning money and gaining reputation, you criticize those players for their contributions to you. We kept silent and told everyone that no one would answer, including the actor.

And the process continued. A week before this championship, 3 days before, such processes happen again... I mean, can something like this happen, for God's sake? So, first stick the needle into yourself, then make a move to stick the screw in the other direction. Do such things happen? It's like what are you telling me?

Take Boskovic out of the Serbian team, take him out of the third place match yesterday, he wouldn't have been third. I told this to my friend, the Minister of Sports, Gajic, and the President of the Federation. We have no problems with them, so we went to dinner after the match yesterday. I hosted our Minister, our Federation President and Italy, and we were the best hosts.

Now, we did not raise our voice against any of these, but it came to a point where we started to receive a lot of criticism; "And why do you remain silent, why do you not answer anything?" etc. We gave an answer, politely, let me say politely (laughs). In other words, those who committed this betrayal in this country should think carefully when they want to take office in this country.

We thought that we would not tolerate such treason and such brutal attacks in our country. It became a big agenda, it became news. It also motivated the team."

About his debut for the challenge in the second set:

"The ball went out of my hand in front of me. It went out of the hands of the setter when the two players changed players, or the passer who replaced Orro. The player is feeling embarrassed before my eyes, but our team turned and left as if the ball was given to us. But you will follow the referee's signal. What does the referee say in his signal? "Ball" he says, "there is nothing, the ball belongs to Italy."

That's where I couldn't help myself. First Derya, who made eye contact with me, then Santarelli, the staff and Recepler noticed me there. "Ask for a challenge," Santarelli immediately made a sudden turn. We objected. If we don't object and pass the time, it's over.

We are 19-17. He gave it to them and it was 20-17. But we bought it, it was 19-18. At 20-17, it is very difficult to close the gap by even more three points. He was going to close, but when he did that co-player in that position, his ego was out. So, we should have scored 1-2 points there until Egonu came in and played with the big men, and the team achieved that.

This happened, but there was news there too, I guess everyone followed it very well. Thousands of messages arrived; "Oh, President, that's a very appropriate intervention," etc. It's out of place, we're living. I love my job, I concentrate fully on it because I love doing it.

In other words, those sitting next to me, to my right, to my left, suffer some damage during the match. Mr. Minister may also have some trouble in his left leg. Again, our former minister Çağatay Bey's right leg... One of them may have had problems with his right leg and the other with his left leg. I will ask in the future, "Is there a problem?" saying. "We experienced such beauties."