The final round of the 2024 National A-Class Volleyball Tournament will take place from October 10 to October 19 in Tra Vinh. The women's event will feature 6 teams including Ho Chi Minh City, Thai Nguyen, Vinh Phuc, Kinh Bac Bac Ninh, Hai Duong and Vinh Long.
Meanwhile, the men's event is a competition between 8 teams including Ho Chi Minh City Police, Binh Duong, SK Pearlnest Khanh Hoa, Military Region 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Mobile Police Command, Ben Tre and host Tra Vinh.
This year's tournament is the first season that allows teams to transfer 2 foreign players, not overlapping with foreign players in the national championship. At all times, only 1 foreign player is allowed to compete on the field. The procedure for hiring foreign players is carried out according to the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Transfer Regulations.
In the qualifying round, only Kinh Bac Bac Ninh women's team was the pioneer when recruiting Thai striker Kuttika Kaewpin.
At that time, assistant player Pham Thai Hung (HCMC Police men's team) once talked to Lao Dong: "Most of the A-class teams are operating under the State budget, so the issue of funding for hiring foreign players will be limited. Besides, the qualifying round and the final round are far apart, so teams with high targets may strengthen in the final round."
As expected, to increase strength and compete for a ticket back to the highest level of Vietnamese volleyball, the teams have strengthened their forces, especially bringing in quality foreign players for the upcoming final round.
According to records, up to now, at least 5 foreign players have been registered, including 2 players signed contracts with Ho Chi Minh City Police, 2 players from the Ho Chi Minh City women's team and 1 player from the Kinh Bac Bac Ninh women's team. It is known that the Ho Chi Minh City Police men's team will have the service of striker Pin Sarun from Cambodia; Onuma Sittirak is 1 of 2 foreign players that the Ho Chi Minh City women's team has reached an agreement to invite...
Currently, all 5 foreign players are in Tra Vinh, preparing to compete from October 10. It can be seen that the above clubs are all teams aiming for promotion. Therefore, foreign players will certainly be an important factor, even playing the role of a game-changer in each match to help the home team realize the goal of winning.
Mr. Le Tri Truong - General Secretary of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation expressed his belief that with foreign players, the audience will find the matches more attractive. With foreign players, the A-class volleyball tournament will create more attraction for fans.
Meanwhile, middle blocker Pham Thai Hung also affirmed: "Having foreign players in the tournament will help improve the quality of the matches. From there, the players will also learn more tactics and playing styles from foreign players."
Perhaps, the contracts between teams and foreign players are only short-term, serving immediate goals. However, the appearance of foreign players will certainly help improve the quality of the national A-class volleyball tournament.
This is also the motivation for the teams to prepare carefully, ready to bring the audience beautiful matches with high professional quality.
