Men's volleyball aims for SEA Games 31 gold medal in Vietnam

On April 3, in Bac Ninh and Ninh Binh, the 2019 National Volleyball Championship will officially kick off.

Recently, the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV) held a press conference to introduce details about the 2019 National Volleyball Championship. VFV General Secretary Le Tri Truong said: To increase the attractiveness, this year's tournament will have many changes. This is also an opportunity for the coaching staff to select the most worthy faces to participate in the 30th SEA Games taking place at the end of November in the Philippines.

New look

Instead of only 8 teams in each category of men and women like every year, the organizing committee decided to return to the number of 10 teams in this year's tournament. At the end of the tournament, there will be a relegation to Class A and the champion team of Class A will be promoted to replace it. This format is expected to be maintained for 3 years. After that, VFV will have a summary, evaluating each specific advantage and disadvantage to have a plan to develop Vietnamese volleyball in the future.

The 2019 National Championship will have 10 men's and women's teams instead of 8 teams like every year. Photo: Dung Nguyen

In addition, to increase the number of matches, the competition format and pairings have also been adjusted, with up to 2 group stages. After the first group stage matches are over, the teams ranked 1st, 3rd and 5th in Groups A and B will be grouped with the teams ranked 2nd and 4th in Groups B and A to form Groups C and D.

In the two new groups, the teams will continue to compete in a round robin to calculate points, then add up the results in the two group stages to find the names that make it to the final round. In the final, the first and second teams of groups C and D (men and women) will compete in the semi-finals (first place C will meet second place D and first place D will meet second place C). The two semi-final winners will compete for first and second place, the two semi-final losers will compete for third place. The third-placed teams of groups C and D will compete for 5th and 6th place. The fourth and fifth-placed teams of groups C and D will compete for 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place.

According to Mr. Le Tri Truong, adjusting this competition format will help teams have the opportunity to meet each other, thereby improving the level of athletes as well as increasing the competitiveness and attractiveness of the tournament.

In addition, to encourage youth training, VFV also issued a regulation that in 2019, teams competing in the National Championship must have a youth team. If there is no youth team participating in the National Youth Championship, the club will have to compete in the A-League in 2020.

Match schedule

The 10 men's and 10 women's teams will be divided into two groups A and B by the Organizing Committee. The first group stage will take place from April 3 to 7 in the two provinces of Bac Ninh (group A) and Ninh Binh (group B). Then, from October 6 to 20, the second group stage and the final round will take place in Long An. Before that, from April 11 to 14, VFV will also organize the traditional Hung Vuong Cup in Phu Tho.

The first, second and third place teams in each men's and women's category received 100, 70 and 30 million VND respectively. In addition, the organizing committee also awarded many other individual prizes. The total prize money of the tournament was 436 million VND. In addition, the organizing committee also awarded a number of individual titles to the best attackers, setters, defenders and the best referees. This is an effort because up to now, this year's championship has not had a sponsor.

Ha Tinh will be in the same group with Sanest Khanh Hoa, Bien Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, and XSKT Vinh Long. Along with the current champion Ho Chi Minh City, this group also includes two "big guys" Sanest Khanh Hoa and Bien Phong, who have won many championships and runners-up in previous seasons. Certainly, to stay in the "death group", Ha Tinh players must make constant efforts.

Details of the matches in both men's and women's categories:

Group A (men):Border Guard, Ho Chi Minh City, Sanest Khanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Vinh Long Lottery.

Group B (men):Trang An Ninh Binh, The Cong, Long An, Ben Tre, Binh Duong Construction Materials.

Group A (women):Kinh Bac Bac Ninh, VTV Binh Dien Long An, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, Mikado Thai Binh, Duc Giang Chemicals Hanoi.

Group B (women):Dak Lak, Lienvietpostbank Information, Tien Nong Thanh Hoa, Kingphar Quang Ninh, Vinh Long Television.

HCV targetSEA Games 31

TheThe championship is where coaches search and discover new faces for the national team. Up to now, Vietnamese volleyball teams when competing in Southeast Asia are often at a disadvantage against a strong Thailand in both men and women.

Vietnamese volleyball teams when competing in Southeast Asia are often at a disadvantage against Thailand, which is strong in both men and women. Photo: Dung Nguyen

More worryingly, if the women's team used to lose to Thailand at the SEA Games, recently we lost to both Indonesia and the Philippines, threatening Vietnam's second place.

The adjustments of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation are long-term to serve the goal of conquering the championship of the 31st SEA Games in 2021, scheduled to take place in Vietnam. It is known that along with improving the quality of the tournaments, VFV is planning to invite foreign coaches to lead the team.