The volleyball championship of Russia did not end on a positive note. The victory of Kaliningrad Lokomotiv (second in a row) was marred by a scandal that occurred due to the fault of the head coach of the team. Andrey Voronkov.
In one of the episodes, a moment was captured from a time-lapse by the camera lens, where Voronkov instructs the central blocker Valeria Zaitseva. It may seem like a standard story, but it was impossible not to catch a sentence. “Why did you catch that monkey again?” said Voronkov. Everyone immediately guessed that we are talking about the Cuban volleyball player “Uralochka-NTMK”. Alame Montalvo. There were no more black players on the field.
The press service of the Sverdlovsk club, led by Nikolai Karpol, asked the Kaliningrad coach to publicly apologize. Uralochka General Manager Valentina Ogienko described the situation as an “international scandal” and urged Voronkov to be held to account as well. Commentator Dmitry Guberniev generally believes that the Lokomotiv coach should be dismissed in disgrace. In general, the federation (VFV) is already solving what happened. The management of the criminal club has not yet made a detailed statement.
It is unlikely that anyone will decide to fire Voronkov from Lokomotiv. Still, the man twice led the team to the championship in the Super League. The initial reaction of the club from Kaliningrad is incredible. Alexander Kosyrkov, general manager of Lokomotiv, told SE that he did not see anything, was not aware of it, and indeed was not ready for this now. Imagine if Russia did not miss the World Cup in volleyball. And literally 3 months before the start of the super tournament, this is happening in the host country. Many black volleyball players may boycott. Believe me, this is not an exaggeration. In England, Black lives matter promotions are still held before the start of matches in the same football.
The minimum fine for Voronkov and a public apology. Of course, Finn Tuomas will be removed from the list of candidates for the post of head coach of the men’s team that Sammelvuo left. Voronkov is one of the contenders, along with Konstantin Bryansky from Dynamo, Alexei Verbov from Zenit-Kazan, Plamen Konstantinov from Lokomotiv and Alexander Klimkin from Dynamo-LO.
It is clear that Voronkov had no obvious racist tendencies and that everything said was about emotions (he couldn’t remember what he said at the moment). However, the time has come when you have to be tolerant, or at least pretend. Yet we do not live in the Stone Age. In other words, you need to be careful with your language, especially if you’re an experienced coach and kind of young. Dozens of cameras are watching you, and the broadcast goes all over Russia.
Uralochka has so far taken a soft stand and demanded only an apology from Voronkov. But it can and should be brought under a more serious responsibility so that others may be disrespected. Former coach of the Russian women’s team Sergio Buzato Once, during the Olympic selection, regret was enough when, by the way, he also showed narrow glances at a match against the Koreans in Kaliningrad. We are now in isolation. You can imagine how big this scandal would be if the western media and federations were also included in the story. Then it would certainly be difficult for Voronkov to stay in the profession.
Sad and one more thing. Strong Cubans often come to the Russian championship, bringing tangible benefits to the clubs. And even in the current situation, the girls would probably go to Russia, unlike the legionnaires in many other countries. And here Voronkov does such an anti-advertising for all Russian volleyball. You really can’t put it on the brakes.
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