Volleyball League of Nations this year is held without Russia. Back in the spring, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) announced the postponement of matches from Kemerovo, and then completely removed our country from participating in the tournament. From this decision, the championship has noticeably lost in level: in the last three seasons of the League of Nations, the Russian team took gold twice.

However, serious passions are now boiling at the tournament without Russia. True, not a sporting property. Due to the negligence of the organizers, the League of Nations has turned into a nightmare: volleyball matches are canceled one after another.

Do they not think about the safety of athletes in the Federation at all?

China again brought the “crown”

The Chinese national team got into the League of Nations at the last moment: the Asian team replaced the disqualified Russia in the list of participants. And precisely because of the invitation to the tournament of the Chinese, in whose country the pandemic is now raging again, the competition was on the verge of collapse.

On June 18, having arrived for the next series of games in the Philippines, the Chinese team almost in its entirety failed PCR testing for coronavirus. Positive results were found in 21 members of the delegation. All infected had to go to a five-day quarantine – in accordance with Philippine law.

Photo: © ROUELLE UMALI / XinHua / Global Look Press

On June 22, the last day of isolation, China was supposed to play the French team, but the team did not even have six healthy volleyball players. Because of this, the representatives of the Celestial Empire were credited with a technical defeat.

— The Chinese men’s team was unable to field six players for the match, which was to be held in the Philippines on June 22, due to medical circumstances related to COVID-19. As such, the FIVB and Volleyball World confirmed the cancellation of the match with an automatic loss to China, making France win 3-0. says in the official FIVB statement.

“It makes us angry and stunned”

The day after the “techie” the Chinese team could legally go to the match with Germany. In the Philippines, people are allowed to leave isolation if they show no symptoms of illness after five days of quarantine. There is no need to re-test.

This rule was used in the Chinese team, in whose participants all symptoms disappeared exactly on the sixth day after passing the tests. The Chinese were ready to enter the match with Germany in full force.

But here the scandal took an unexpected turn. The Germans themselves decided not to go to the site, as they were afraid that the opponents had not recovered and could infect them.

“The League of Nations is one of the biggest tournaments in the world of volleyball and we are very concerned about our results if we have further cases of coronavirus. A positive test result will lead to the isolation of infected people and close contacts on the spot, and will most likely make it impossible to travel to Japan. The medical consequences of the disease are also unpredictable for anyone, – says in the official statement of the management of the German national team.

Photo: © ROUELLE UMALI / XinHua / Global Look Press

At the same time, the representatives of Germany did not take a principled position. They were ready to meet the organizers. The Germans offered the Chinese to take a second PCR test to ensure maximum safety for all participants in the match, but the FIVB abandoned this initiative.

The Germans were ready to hold the game on other dates, but even here the organizers refused to transfer Germany. As a result, the boycott of the Europeans gave China victory. This circumstance greatly upset the Germans. The position of the team was expressed by its captain Christian Fromm.

“The FIVB does not consider it necessary to improve safety for us players through a single official control test. It angers us and stuns us – declared volleyball player.

The leadership of the League of Nations realized that the hype that had risen was clearly not going to benefit the federation. Soon officials had to apologize publicly for the decision.

— FIVB and Volleyball World confirm that, in accordance with the VNL 2022 Competition Regulations, Germany is automatically disqualified from the match, China is awarded a 3-0 victory. We apologize to athletes, officials, spectators and fans around the world for any cancellation inconvenience.

China’s next rival, the Argentina national team, had to take into account the sad experience of its predecessors. It is quite possible that the Latin team was not eager to play with “infectious” opponents, but the prospect of a technical defeat, apparently, scared them more. As a result, the Argentines took their points, winning in a fair fight with a score of 3:1.

However, the story is probably not over yet: ahead of China, they are waiting for meetings with Italians who are more principled in epidemiological terms. And in July, the team will have to fly to Europe at all, where Asians may simply not be allowed to meet with the Netherlands, Poland and other rivals. How the organizers will resolve the situation is an open question.