Japanese football team issues announcement about Bich Thuy
Okayama Seagulls Club has just made an official announcement about middle blocker Tran Thi Bich Thuy. The Japanese team's homepage wrote: "Okayama Seagulls respectfully announce that athlete #27, Tran Thi Bich Thuy (Mira), will temporarily leave the club to return to focus on the Vietnam women's volleyball team.
Bich Thuy has been called up to prepare and attend the 2025 SEA Games Thailand (33rd Southeast Asian Games), held in Thailand.
Due to national obligations, Tran Thi Bich Thuy will not be able to join Okayama Seagulls in the following tournaments/matches: the match against Saitama Ageo Medics at the Daido Life SV.LEAGUE WOMEN tournament 2025-2026 (round 9); the final round of the Japan Queen's Cup.
Okayama Seagulls Club respectfully hopes that fans will continue to support and cheer enthusiastically for the team in the upcoming period".
According to the investigation, both Bich Thuy and Thanh Thuy returned home on December 2. The coaching staff of the Vietnam Women's Volleyball Team let the two players rest, then returned to practice today (December 3) in Vinh Long.
Vietnamese referees on duty at the 33rd SEA Games
According to research, at the upcoming 33rd SEA Games, Vietnamese volleyball will have 4 referees on duty in two events: indoors and on the beach. It is known that the two referees Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa and Nguyen Huy Thong will participate in organizing the indoor volleyball event, while the referees Nguyen Thai Binh and Vo Minh Thanh will participate in organizing the beach volleyball event.
These are famous referees in Vietnam, who have had a lot of experience participating in running matches at all levels of Southeast Asia and Asia.
When the referees are present in Thailand, the organizing committee of the 33rd SEA Games will assign the official task.
According to the schedule, the 33rd SEA Games indoor volleyball event will be held in Bangkok from 10.12-19.12. The beach volleyball event will take place in Chonburi from December 12-19.
Number of group stage matches of the national championship
The 2026 National Volleyball Championship will be held in phase 1 at Dong Anh Stadium (Hanoi) while phase 2 will be competed in Ho Chi Minh City and Vinh Long.
Currently, the professional organization department of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation and the professional volleyball functional unit (Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports) are carefully reviewing the contents of the draft regulations for the 2026 national championship before promulgating them.
It is known that the men's and women's teams will still compete in the group stage by playing a round-robin to calculate points. The round-robin matches will take place in full in 2 stages. In phase 1, each team will play 7 matches. In phase 2, each team will continue to play a round-robin of 7 matches. Thus, the teams will play a total of 14 matches in the group stage. After that, the organizing committee will determine the group of teams entering the final round and the group of teams that must compete for relegation.
