At the end of the summer, Russia was supposed to host the men’s volleyball world championship. Never before has our country received such an opportunity, so the preparation for the tournament was exceptional.

However, the Russians were not allowed to give the world a holiday of sports. The International Federation succumbed to the pressure of politicians and took away the exclusive right from our country in the spring. The World Cup was urgently moved to Poland and Slovenia, which turned out to be completely unprepared for the competition.

The decision of the sports authorities turned out to be a resounding failure. No one goes to the main tournament of the year!

Too simple solution

On March 1 this year, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) deprived Russia of the right to host the World Championship, and on April 15 announced the transfer of competitions to Poland and Slovenia. Instead of 10 cities in our country, the championship is hosted by the Slovenian capital Ljubljana and two cities in Poland: Katowice and Gliwice.

Photo: © IMAGO / Anna Klepaczko / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

The reigning world champions got the right to see the world’s best volleyball players on their home soil for the second time in the last three draws. In the finals of 2014 and 2018, the Poles beat Brazil in the final: the first time at home, the second time in Italy. Now the wards of Nikola Grbic are again in an extremely convenient position and can compete for the third gold in a row.

However, before the start of the World Cup, Poland was worried not only about the fate of their team. For four months, the organizers had to urgently prepare for the tournament, including attracting the attention of fans to it. And with this task, the new owners of the championship, it seems, failed.

First failed day

As the story of the transfer of the Champions League final from Russia to France has shown, even countries that are ready to host large-scale events in terms of infrastructure can fail to prepare for them – it always takes time. In Slovenia and Poland, with halls and love for volleyball, everything seems to be in order. But the first day of competition showed that the management of the World Championship made a mistake somewhere.

Formally, the first match of the tournament was the game of two blocks of world volleyball: Brazil and Cuba. But the fight between three-time Olympic champions and two-time silver medalists of the world championships interested no more than a hundred fans. With a capacity of more than 12 thousand people, the Stojice Arena in Ljubljana has collected only 1% of the maximum occupancy!

Photo: © IMAGO / Anna Klepaczko / imago-images.de / Global Look Press

Some would think that this could not have happened in Poland. But in the second host country of the competition, the picture was similar. The USA-Mexico match in Katowice looked more like a junior training session than a game at the World Championships – guests from across the ocean were also greeted by half-empty stands. As a result, the Spodek arena was filled only for the game between the Poles themselves and the Bulgarians, having gathered more than 11 thousand people on the site.

However, this cannot be compared with the bacchanalia that was going on at the opening match of 2014 between the Poles and the Serbs. At that time, the game at the National Stadium in Warsaw was watched live by … about 62 thousand people!

Photo: © Adam Pretty / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

In total, six matches took place on the first game day: four in Slovenia and two in Poland. But apart from the games of the hosts, the other duels took place almost in silence. Obviously, the organizers of the current tournament are very far from the indicators of the two previous championships, when the average attendance was in the range of four to six thousand people. In 2018, at the end of the group stage, almost three thousand people came to even the decisive Brazil-Canada game. Such figures now look cosmic.

Would the situation in the stands have been better if the international federation had kept the World Cup in Russia? Probably yes. Systematic preparations were going on in 10 of our cities, and Russian fans were really looking forward to the start of the tournament. But for the world sports community, it is now more important to show their political position than to arrange a holiday for athletes and fans.