The city of Antwerp has recognised No Blockers as an official sports club of the municipality. As such, No Blockers joins a network of more than 350 clubs in the city and commits to keep fulfilling the requirements for this label.
What does this recognition mean?
For No Blockers, being recognized as an “erkende sportclub” by Stad Antwerpen is an acknowledgment that our club meets the city’s standards for a safe, well-run sporting environment, including criteria such as a verified safety scan and a meaningful presence in Antwerp. This recognition also makes the club eligible for the city’s sport subsidies, which cover everything from basic funding and participation support to sports-technical development, equipment, and infrastructure grants. This makes it easier for us to grow and welcome more players to the first international volleyball club of Antwerp. It’s a milestone that reflects the hard work of everyone involved in building our club, and a strong foundation for what comes next.
What’s next?
No Blockers will proudly display this quality label across our communication channels and will continue to meet — and where possible exceed — the requirements of the recognition. The recognition is valid for 2 years and No Blockers intends to renew it afterward. We’re grateful to the Sportservice team of the City of Antwerp for making this label possible and for supporting us throughout the process. Antwerp is our homebase and as the first international volleyball club of the city, we continue to be a meeting point, place of exchange and integration for all people.
June 10, 2026 | Club development | ~2min read time
No Blockers vzw and TALENTA+ Foundation have entered a strategic partnership for the competitive season 2026-2027. The duration of the agreement is set to one year but can be prolonged.
About Talenta+
TALENTA+ is a sports management and strategy organisation headed by Tawfeek Zen Alabden. Its professionals have more than 15 years of experience in tailoring competition and training strategies to the needs and demands of sports clubs. TALENTA+’s motto is: everyone has a talent that can be nurtured through fun and performance.
No Blockers supports their players and wants to offer real and sustainable growth opportunities to all individuals to build strong and successful competitors. Talenta+ will develop training plans for No Blockers based on state-of-the-art sports science and individual as well as team performance insights. Furthermore, they will co-organise tournaments and help us promote volleyball towards people from diverse backgrounds. With this move, we professionalise our trainings allowing for more structure and strategy. The specifics of the training and competition plans and procedures around will be discussed in July and shared internally.
Partners with a higher purpose
Rooted in Antwerp, Talenta+ is an excellent local partner with a vast network in the sports sector and clear societal mission: to offer inclusion and integration of newcomers through sports. Given our own origin story, No Blockers backs up this approach and commits to supporting Talenta+ with available resources.
The strategic partnership agreement is signed. From left to right: Luka Paul Vethake (treasurer No Blockers), Tawfeek Zen Alabden (Founder TALENTA+), Sohel Zin Alaabidin, chairman No Blockers vzw)
As of season 2026-27, No Blockers will hold teams in the Sporta and Volley Vlaanderen leagues. One men’s team will advance to Sporta 3A, while a men’s and a women’s team will start a new chapter in the second and third Volley Antwerpen league, respectively, which are both managed by Volley Vlaanderen.
What this means for our club
We have said it from the beginning: No Blockers is here to stay and grow. With this move, we claim new territory and introduce our play, our story and mission to a new audience. Our players have played an immaculate season and it is only fair to offer them growth perspectives. We want the best for each player and playing against opponents that are on a higher level is the best way to learn. So far, we have been confined to the borders of the city of Antwerp. With this step, we extend our circle of influence to the Province of Antwerp.
No Blockers is officially welcoming sponsors for the next season and beyond. This is a big step for No Blockers as we are approaching the next season. What can expect sponsors from us, what do we expect from them? The board has put together a short overview.
What kind of sponsors are we looking for?
At this stage, we are looking for main sponsors who can support our club on a large scale, from sports activities to quartermaster and recurring expenses like booking fields. Next to this, we can also accommodate more specific sponsorship. You are a multimedia company? We could use your hardware to record our matches. You are a food brand? We’d love to use your products during tough matches! There are hundreds of use cases where we are open to see together with you what kind of sponsorship works best for both of us.
In the meantime, you can find more information and a short leaflet on this page:
At No Blockers, we value an active relationship and reciprocal interest. We plan to organise a Network & Sponsorship Event (NSE) once a year where sponsors have the opportunity to secure a speaking slot and network their way through the club and fellow sponsors. Next to that, we welcome every sponsor to our matches to support us and see the progress our teams and club make in action and first-hand.
What does No Blockers offer in return?
Good to know: in Belgium, sponsorship expenses are to a varying extent deductible for a BV or NV at tax declaration. We will provide sponsors with an invoice and detailed contract. Sponsoring is a win-win situation, really. For a small amount, sponsors unlock all the benefits associated with No Blockers:
Multi-channel brand exposure to diverse audiences in the Antwerp province and beyond;
Networking, co-branding and other CSR or PR initiatives and activities;
Access to young, international talent in the vibrant and large expat community of Antwerp;
…and many more exclusive sponsor perks!
The specifics of the contract are subject to change and negotiation, of course.
What do you need to do to become a sponsor?
Interested? Great! Reach out to our board at info@no-blockers.be or via +32486267744. We will happily meet with you to introduce No Blockers and discuss the contract.
What sets our club apart are our people. Dedicated club members like Fabio, Begüm and Mladen, who want to contribute and help our players at becoming better. They combined their strengths; statistics, physiotherapy and volleyball coaching, to develop a fitness app for our players.
The idea behind the app
Recently, our players filled out a survey in which they indicated previous and current injuries. Based on the results, and data from more than 20 matches, the project group developed a personalised plan for each player. The training content is personalised and the exercises take 1min each with 30 second breaks in between and feature a clear instruction video. The player can do the exercises daily and mark them completed so that the coaching team can see the progress. The exercises change every week based on development and training needs.
Impressions of the interface of the volleyball fitness app on desktop, tablet and phone.
The participation is voluntary and the data will not be collected. Fabio says: “we saw this more as a nice add-on for our teammates and the way we train.” Mladen adds: “this fitness tracker will not determine nor influence decisions on how we fill positions for matches. Everyone will as always get the same opportunity to play and to develop together.” The exercises follow modern standards of physiotherapy and are chosen with great care by dr. Begüm Okudan: “we made sure that all of the exercises help with individual muscular deficits but also focus on the core needs of volleyball, namely explosiveness, agility and strength”.
The future of our trainings
This app is not meant to revolutionise our trainings, but it ties in with the data usage project that we started this season. As a growth-oriented club, we are always on the lookout for new trends and ways of improving the sport we love. This digitisation project is not doomed to end in a mixed augmented reality situation or some sort of cybernetic training procedures. Volleyball is still physical and enjoyed by humans – this will always remain the same. However, we will keep developing this project as we keep developing our club enshrined in our motto: No fear. No limits. No Blockers.
We have many goals, and developing our own merch was one of them. In January, we finalised the designs and agreed on the products. Now, our players have received the items and are genuinely happy with the outcome. But why did we create our merch in the first place?
Listening to our players
First and foremost, our players repeatedly asked for club merch because everyone felt a real need for a hoodie and training jacket for warm-up exercises. On top of that, we wanted to be able to show where we belong via a shared way of clothing and expose our brand to the public.
Demonstrated togetherness
The impression we create on our opponents when entering the sports hall together, wearing our clubwear, is higher than when everyone just wears something different. It demonstrates that we are one cohesive team and stand together.
Celebrating No Blockers
The club merch is also a nice way of rewarding ourselves for the past few months which have been hectic at times, but always successful. We love No Blockers and we want the club to grow, so having merch is another step to make those ambitions a reality. The merch is only available to club members for now, but this might change in the future.
We are happy to announce that No Blockers is now finally and officially a registered vzw (vereniging zonder winstoogmerk) in Belgium!
Why does this matter?
Becoming a vzw is more than a change in letters. As a feitelijke vereniging (fv), we were regarded a group of people coming together for a shared goal or purpose under the eyes of the law. However, we always felt that No Blockers is destined for more. Becoming a vzw means commitment, institutionalisation and development to us.
Commitment because we commit to the values and principles of our club enshrined in our constitution, democratic governance and code of conduct. This step also signals to our opponents, competition leagues and sport federations that we have our feet on the ground and are here to stay and grow.
Institutionalisation is a chunky word, but we hope that our members and the general public will come to see No Blockers not only as a club with a purpose, but also as an institutional authority in Antwerp with a strong commitment to bring together volleyball players from all skill levels, roles and backgrounds.
Lastly, this officialisation will enable us to sell our own merch, contracting sponsors and carry out a variety of other financial activities. The board will reconvene soon to review No Blockers’ future path and growth strategies.
The process
We considered becoming a vzw in early 2025, but there was simply too much on our plate and we had to focus on very real organisational questions of logos and teamwear. The project however never came to a complete standstill. Luka co-authored the constitution (onderhandse akte) in the months to follow and took over the process of changing our judicial form. With the new year’s energy we decided to make a push and, after a lot of proofreading, hand in our request which was promptly accepted.
What is next?
We’re still the same old club with the same outstanding people and principles. No Blockers will accept sponsors for the 2026/27 season soon and hold its first general assembly in August. We are currently also working on getting recognised as an official sports club (erkende sportclub) in Antwerp. Bear with us, watch our livestreams or support us live at matches and never forget: No fears. No limits. No Blockers.
The 2026/27 season seems far away, but it most certainly is not from a club management perspective. We have big goals for next year and are already starting to get things moving in the background. One of these activities is to build a No Blockers women’s team.
Beginnings in motion
On November 9th No Blockers, No Blockers-affiliated and Team Beshie women players came together for a trial match in Sporthal De Rode Loop in Merksem. The goal was to get better grip on where we stand with a potential women’s team. The atmosphere was great, with a lot of interest from the rest of the club members manifesting itself in attendance. There were no losers that day, only one big winner: No Blockers club. If we combine the strengths of all of the players present that day, we will have an exceptionally strong women’s team.
Our vision
Team Beshie’s players will merge with the No Blockers women’s team fully and officially by early 2026. We will issue a press release once the process has been completed. Our hopes are that one team will start competing in the 3rd provincial league of Antwerp. If we’re lucky, we will have a first and second women’s team. One starting in 3rd Provincial and the other starting in Sporta V. We also want to continuously grow our women’s teams.
Training philosophy
As for the trainings, both teams (or one) will be under the leadership of Begüm and Sacha as captain and coach, respectively. The idea is to hold mixed trainings as well as focused separate ones. The philosophy behind this is that we want to act as one club and exchange and community are central to our DNA. So mingling and enjoying the sport together is important to us. However, we also realise that certain aspects of the game are best practised separately. The attack through the middle being the most prevalent one, for example.
What the future holds
We are looking forward for the next months to come. Our women’s team is already an organised group and their friendly matches see high attendance and interest from our club members. Each player knows their position well, so now it is all about developing that special team spirit and synergy so that they can beat their opponents within the blink of an eye.
Everybody was impressed by the accuracy and visualisation of match data during the FIVB World Championships this year. So how do we collect data, how do we use it and what does it mean for the team?
Making data accessible
Data has become a staple in professional volleyball. We are used to impressive animations of ball in/ball out, reception accuracy visualisations and seeing what positions the setter trusts in the most to make a kill. As a club in Sporta IV our means are limited, but not our willpower and imagination. Of course we do not possess wearable sensors, high-frame cameras and powerful statistical software, but we got our very own data-wiz; Fabio.
He took it into his own hands to find a pragmatic solution to collect, process and visualise data about our matches. Fabio used open-source app framework Stream Lit and an AI tool to build our No Blockers dashboard infrastructure. The process involves the creation of Excel files designed to capture specific data from the games. This custom information is manually collected and then uploaded to generate the match data.
How we collect data about our players and our team
The system was designed to capture custom information about games, specifically details per player, such as attacks, kills, misses, sets, serve receptions, digs, and blocks. This level of detail allows for a comprehensive analysis of individual player performance.
Team performance is also a key aspect of the system, with data collected on points won when serving and receiving, as well as the length of rallies to determine if the team performs better with quick or longer points. The length of rallies is categorised into the number of hits, such as three, four, or five hits, providing insight into the team’s strategy and effectiveness.
Team dashboard in Stream Lit
Rendering insights in a dashboard
A backend code is used to clean the data and match it to the right formats for calculations, enabling the creation of graphs, numbers, and charts for each Key Performance Indicator (KPI). For every KPI, there is a calculation using the collected data, ensuring that the insights gained are accurate and reliable.
Team ranking dashboard in Stream Lit
The dashboard is designed to be user-friendly, where all that is required is to upload the Excel file containing the manually captured game data. Once uploaded, the data is automatically populated, providing instant access to the analysed information.
Individual dashboard in Stream Lit
Future development and use of the software
The system is currently in its first version, with plans to expand and improve KPIs and tracking methods as it evolves. We are also evaluating more granular and nuanced ways of collecting data. For example, when it comes to attack kills, there are several types of kills we could take into account: side out, attack in the net, attack blocked, easy attack, strong attack but defended and so on. We are also looking at possible speech recognition options for easier data collection. The ultimate goal is to gain deeper insights into the game, identifying areas where the team needs to focus its training. The system automatically suggests coach insights and recommendations based on the statistics it analyses, making it a valuable tool for strategic decision-making.
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