“In the year after the Paralympics, the focus is a little more on the club teams,” says Leverkusen's Parasport Managing Director Jörg Frischmann: “As German champions, we wanted to give our players the opportunity to compete at the highest level at home.”

On May 2, six teams from five nations will now play in two groups of three in Herbert-Grünewald-Hallen 8 and 9 for a place in the semi-finals: defending champions OKI Fantomi Sarajevo will play in Group A against SKISO Sinovi Bosne Lukavac, who also come from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Aluron CMC ParaVolley Zawiercie from Poland. Leverkusen will face IOK Zagreb from Croatia and Ortopedia I Santi Nola from Italy in Group B. On Saturday, May 3, the semi-finals and the placement matches are on the schedule, with the final scheduled for 5 p.m.

TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the German record champions, believe that a place in the final is within the realms of possibility: “On paper, the defending champions from OKI Fantomi Sarajevo and our team are probably the favourites,” reveals Frischmann, who is looking forward to bringing another real sitting volleyball highlight to Leverkusen after the EuroCup 2000 and the European Championships 2005, in addition to the annual Theodor Zühlsdorf Cup - to mark the 75th anniversary of the Parasport department.

“This is also a good opportunity and a nice stage for us to say thank you to the state of NRW and our partners - above all Bayer - for the high status that para sport enjoys here,” says Frischmann, “and we hope that many fans of para sports will come along or simply curious people who want to see something new.”

Follow the competition live on the competition website here.