Paris Volley and Silvano Prandi face a battle far bigger than volleyball

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There are seasons in volleyball when the biggest challenge is not waiting on the other side of the net.
For Paris Volley, the most difficult match of the new season may have to be played away from the court.

Just a few months after celebrating the French Cup in front of a packed Adidas Arena, one of the most historic clubs in French volleyball is facing another period of serious financial uncertainty. With the 2026/27 Alterna Volstar season approaching, Paris is looking for a solution that could secure its future, while negotiations over a possible takeover continue.
At the centre of the sporting project is one of the most experienced coaches in European volleyball.
Silvano Prandi, who turned 79 in November, took charge of Paris during the summer after ending his long association with Chaumont. For a coach whose career began in 1976, this was supposed to be another chapter in an extraordinary story — and Prandi had already spoken about the attraction of returning to work after several months away from the bench.
Instead, his new adventure has begun with the future of the club itself under discussion.

Paris has been searching for new investors for several months.
The situation became more concrete during the summer when Team Vitality, one of France’s best-known esports organisations, emerged as a potential buyer. Discussions subsequently involved Vitality together with Athvance Capital, an investment group specialising in sport. The parties have reportedly met members of the Paris Volley workforce and some of the club’s shareholders, although the takeover had not been completed at the time of the latest reports.
The possibility is particularly intriguing because it would take Vitality beyond its traditional esports environment and into professional volleyball.
Founded in Paris in 2013, the organisation has built an international presence across competitive gaming, making a potential investment in Paris Volley an unusual meeting between two very different sporting worlds.
For Paris, however, the priority is not simply finding a new owner.
It is finding a structure capable of providing long-term financial stability.

The club knows what it means to fight for survival.
In 2018, Paris Volley faced another major financial crisis and was in danger of disappearing from the professional scene.
A group of investors led by former Paris player and France captain Stéphane Antiga helped rescue the club, which at the time was facing a significant cash deficit and a relegation to Ligue B. Antiga subsequently became one of the club’s shareholders and remains involved today.
His presence gives the current situation an unusual historical dimension. Antiga was part of the Paris Volley story as a player, was involved in its previous rescue and is now watching another attempt to secure the club’s future while working abroad as head coach of Bogdanka LUK Lublin.

The timing is particularly striking because, on the court, Paris has just experienced one of its most satisfying moments in years.
On 28 March, Paris defeated Nice 3-1 in the French Cup final at the Adidas Arena, winning the trophy for the first time since 2004.
Vasili Molotkov produced a remarkable performance with 33 points and ended the match with an ace, while Paris survived four closely contested sets: 30:28, 25:23, 24:26, 26:24. It was the club’s fifth French Cup and its first major trophy in more than two decades.
The Russian opposite has since left Paris for Tours, where he will play alongside Earvin Ngapeth, but his final season in the capital has become an important part of the club’s recent history.

Paris subsequently continued to work on its squad for the new campaign. One of the most notable additions was Daryl Bultor, the French middle blocker and Tokyo Olympic champion, who joined after playing for Ajaccio in 2025/26. At the same time, Yannick Bazin stepped away from his role as sporting director. The changes came while negotiations over a possible takeover were already underway.
And then there is Prandi.
Few coaches in European volleyball carry a résumé quite like the Italian. His coaching career stretches back half a century and includes the 2017 French championship with Chaumont, a title that made him, at the time, the oldest coach to win the French championship. His career has also included international appointments and major clubs across Italy and Europe.
After leaving Chaumont in January 2026 following more than a decade with the club, Prandi initially had no plans to rush back onto the bench. Then Paris called.
For him, the appeal was not simply another job. It was another opportunity to remain part of the game he has spent his entire adult life in.

Now his challenge is very different.
A coach can prepare a team for a difficult opponent. He can change a starting six, adjust a block or call a timeout. He cannot solve a club’s financial structure from the bench.
That is why the coming weeks are potentially decisive for Paris Volley.
The club’s immediate sporting future is linked to the outcome of the search for an investor, while the proposed Vitality-led project could represent a new direction for an organisation that has already experienced several very different eras.

Paris Volley is not simply another French club.
Its history includes nine French league titles and the 2001 CEV Champions League, the greatest European triumph in the club’s history. Stéphane Antiga, Glenn Hoag, Wilfredo Leon, Michal Kubiak, Nikola Kovacevic and Antoine Brizard are among the former or current figures connected to its shareholder structure, underlining the breadth of the club’s volleyball heritage.
That history is precisely what makes the current situation so significant.

The 2026/27 French championship is scheduled to begin on 17 October. By then, Paris would like the conversation to be about volleyball again: about Prandi’s team, its new signings, its ambitions and its attempt to build on last season’s cup triumph.
For now, however, the biggest result Paris Volley is looking for has nothing to do with the scoreboard.
It is the confirmation that the club will still be there to play the next match.

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