The National Volleyball Championship 2022 will take place in Ninh Binh Province and Vinh Phuc Province in July with some changes in format. For example, the teams will play only one round before entering the final and ranking rounds; foreign players are allowed; two teams will be relegated.
The National Volleyball Championship 2022 will take place in Ninh Binh Province and Vinh Phuc Province in July with some changes in format. For example, the teams will play only one round before entering the final and ranking rounds; foreign players are allowed; two teams will be relegated.
These changes were announced recently by Vietnam Volleyball Federation. There are 11 male teams and 11 female teams take part in the 2022 tournament, two teams more than the 2021 tournament. Due to the difficulties caused by COVID-19, last year’s tournament ended with no teams being relegated. Vinh Long and Bamboo Airways Vinh Phuc are the two teams being promoted from A-level tournament to this year’s championship.
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In the 2022 tournament, male and female teams will be split into two groups of five teams and two groups of six teams of men’s and women’s events and play one round in a single-round robin format. Eight excellent teams of each event (raking from first to fourth of each group) will play each other to decide the champions. Two fifth-placed teams and one sixth-placed team of two groups will compete for a stay in the tournament next year. Two teams will be relegated to A-level tournament 2023. The reason that Vietnam Volleyball Federation reduces the rounds of the 2022 championship to one round is helping the athletes of the provincial teams and national team to focus on SEA Games 31 and the 9th National Sports Festival.
Besides changing format, this year, the federation allows the teams to recruit two foreign players, but only one of them is permitted to play in the court. In fact, foreign players were allowed in the national championship in 2012 and earlier. However, there were some opinions that hiring foreign players cost much and didn’t work for the youth training. After ten years taking play with only Vietnamese players, the national championship has been assessed to lack excitement and competitiveness. Additionally, the skills of Vietnamese players haven’t been improved much when they compete with each other for a lot of times. That is the reason why the federation allows the teams of the 2022 championship to recruit foreign players.
Currently, the teams are preparing their force for the 2022 tournament. They are looking for at least one foreign player from the countries which have strong volleyball movement such as Thailand and Japan. The participation of foreign players is expected to improve the quality and excitement of the tournament and attract spectators. Besides, the competitiveness of the matches is also hoped to be increased. This will help to improve the skills of the participating players and be helpful for the selection of players for the national team.
With the aforementioned changes, the 2022 National Volleyball Championship promises to see exciting matches. This can be a start for a high-quality national championship as well as for the development of Vietnam’s volleyball in the coming time.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
