U21 Vietnam was tried to lose a series of matches at the World U21 Women's Volleyball Championship. The reason was initially clarified, but the question about the athletes had not been returned is still open.
Why is Vietnamese women's volleyball losing?
Vietnam first sent a talented representative at the U21 World Volleyball Prize. The team won 3-0 Indonesia, 3-1 Serbia, 3-1 Canada and lost only 0-3 to Argentina. This result helps Vietnam win 3-1 Puerto Rico and confidently enter the 1/8 round to meet Türkiye.
In the afternoon of August 12, Vietnam received a notice of two players to get blood samples. The team receives the request to add some players' original documents in the team. By the night of the same day, the World Volleyball Federation (FIVB) announced that the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV) used a player who was not eligible to attend the tournament. This player will be eliminated from the prize immediately. Vietnamese matches using this player are all lost 0-3. Vietnam from the second position dropped to the end of Group A. The team will not enter the 1/8 round to meet Türkiye, instead go to Egypt in the round of 17 to 24.
The Thai press said the source of the incident came from a team A in case of a Vietnamese player. Another newspaper suggested that one of the two athletes was banned from playing due to sex issues!
Immediately after receiving the sentence above, the Vietnam Volleyball Federation immediately complained. Secretary General Le Tri Truong of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation affirmed that this organization strictly followed the regulations when participating in the world U21 volleyball tournament.
According to Mr. Le Tri Truong, this year's tournament rules stipulate the athlete's background certified by birth certificate. This must be completed before the tournament and was closed again in the technical meeting the day before the match. On the evening of August 11, the day before the last match in the group stage, the Vietnam Training Board reported to VFV that the Organizing Committee requested to check the personal records of three players, including the original birth certificate, and the procedure of sampling blood and urine.
Through family and host club, VFV translated and then moved to FIVB. All personal information includes full name, date of birth, hometown, gender, and parents' information. However, a athlete has a birth certificate that slows down a year compared to the date of birth, another athlete slows down for two years. This made the two athletes absent in the match against Puerto Rico on August 12.
“We explain that the delay is due to athletes in the countryside. This often happened in Vietnam at that time,” Truong said. “FIVB approved this explanation. But on the night of August 12, they still concluded that a player was not eligible for competition and punished.”
Is it related to gender issues?
When asked about the gender issue, Mr. Truong said that FIVB is like many other world federations only recommend because this is privacy. Mr. Le Tri Truong said: “They are not required to check, based only on the birth certificate as a legal basis. But it can be checked if there is a complaint from other teams. Of course, the index is exceeding the standard, what is a violation, it is not specified in the charter.”
“If they check before competing, although we do not know the right or wrong athletes, we can also prepare another plan.
Before the case of Vietnam, there was a athletes in Myanmar that was canceled by sex doubts. After the verification process, that athlete was still recognized as a valid female, but the team suffered losses because of the delayed verification process.
Back to U21 Vietnam, the team compressed the pain to compete with Egypt in the 17-24 match. Young Vietnamese girls win 3-1 against African representatives after the sets of 25-16, 26-24, 22-25 and 25-20. U21 Vietnam will meet Chile in a 17-20 division match with U21 Vietnam Women's Volleyball team.
U21 Vietnam basically cannot change the situation in the tournament. They will have to accept a lower ranking than the effort. In addition, another question related to the other athletes of Vietnam was checked by FIVB and was not allowed to return to the competition. Will she be banned from playing for 2 years of injustice?