What did the Vietnam Volleyball Federation say about FIVB's penalty at the 2025 Women's U21 World Cup?

In the announcement, VFV affirmed that it had complied with FIVB regulations on athlete registration procedures as well as submitted complete athlete profiles to FIVB before the tournament. These profiles were reviewed and approved by FIVB, allowing athletes to compete.

However, the FIVB's decision on the ineligible athlete was made based on the request for additional documents and some conditions for the athlete on August 12. These are conditions that have never been previously prescribed for the athletes of the Vietnamese team.

VFV said it is making an official complaint according to FIVB procedures, and is coordinating with competent Vietnamese authorities to clarify and protect the rights of athletes as well as the reputation of Vietnamese volleyball.

Previously, the Vietnam U21 women's volleyball team made a big splash at the 2025 World Championship taking place in Indonesia when they won the first three consecutive matches against host Indonesia, Serbia and Canada, only to lose to the extremely strong opponent Argentina.

The excellent performance of the Vietnam U21 women's volleyball team made opponents suspicious and requested FIVB to investigate. In particular, two athletes of the Vietnam U21 women's volleyball team had to undergo related tests and were absent from the final group stage match against Puerto Rico U21 women's volleyball team.

Afterwards, FIVB issued an official announcement, declaring that Vietnam used an ineligible athlete to compete and annulled the results of the matches in which this athlete participated.

Specifically, the Vietnam U21 women's volleyball team had the results of the first 4 matches (3 wins, 1 loss) annulled, and only the win against Puerto Rico U21 women's team was counted. With this result, the Vietnam U21 women's team fell to the bottom of Group A and had to participate in the 17th to 24th ranking round.

According to the tournament update, the opponent of Vietnam U21 women's team is Egypt U21 women's team. Meanwhile, the host team Indonesia U21 women's team will replace coach Nguyen Trong Linh's team in the knockout round.