The uncompromising match
According to statistics from the tournament organizing committee and the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV), there are 9 foreign players registered to participate in the men's event and 9 foreign players registered to participate in the women's event.
This year, the teams in the first phase will play 5 matches. Then in the second stage, the teams will compete in the last two matches of the group stage and then continue to participate in the final round and relegation round.
This arrangement makes the matches in the first stage take place fiercely. The 2025 National Volleyball Championship recognizes the first time world-class hitter Michal Kubiak (Poland) has come to Vietnam to compete for the Ho Chi Minh City Police team. Experts predict that the presence of the above players will help increase the attraction of the Vietnamese tournament image.
In addition to the above foreign players, the highly skilled foreign players Tichaya Boonlert, Jakkrit Thanomnoi, Napadet Bhinijdee, Kittithad Nuwaddee, Anut Promchan (Thailand), Jelena Vwaddeulin ( Serbio), Ceyda Aktas (Türkiye), Lianet Garcia Anglada, Victor Andreu Flores, Alejandro Rodriguez Fuentes (Cuba), Andrea Mitrovic ( Canada), Sharon Chepchumba Kiprono (Kenya) ... are also players who will be noticed in the first phase of the 2025 National Volleyball Championship.
"With the competition schedule of this year's tournament, the teams have had to compete carefully from the first stage. Because the first 5 matches directly determine the overall professional performance in the group stage for each team. If there are no good results, each team can completely face difficulties in the second phase, said VFV General Secretary - Mr. Le Tri Truong.
Both the 8 men's and 8 women's teams wanted to win. Each coaching staff decides to add foreign players to complete their squad to achieve the most suitable performance goals.
Under pressure to achieve results, the coaching staff of the 16 teams determined that each match in the group stage was like a final match with their students.
Bringing top-notch volleyball closer to the audience
On March 22, the first phase of the 2025 National Volleyball Championship will begin. The local organizing committee in Dong Anh (Hanoi) officially opened direct ticket sales from March 17 at the points in front of the stadium.
As of March 19, tickets to watch the first group stage matches here have been sold out. Many fans had difficulty because they had not had time to buy tickets to cheer. Solving the problem of why the National Volleyball Championship needs to have a large audience to cheer has always been a difficult question for the Vietnam Volleyball Federation for many years.
At a time when the National Volleyball Championship has foreign players, the tournament is not always packed with people to cheer. In the last 3 seasons (2022, 2023, 2024) before this year's tournament, the National Volleyball Championship was held at tournaments in Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Dak Nong, Da Nang, Vinh Phuc, Ninh Binh, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, Ba Ria - Vung Tau. Statistics show that the number of spectators entering the stadium to cheer at the above competition locations is high.
"For many years, only when the tournament entered the final round for men and women, the number of spectators coming to the stadium to cheer live increased. Many matches in the group stage have limited number of fans.
We have to calculate carefully because when organizing the tournament on a day, we often have to accept that there are no spectators and that viewers only come to the stadium on weekends, VFV General Secretary shared with the media.
It can be seen that this year is a rare time when the National Volleyball Championship records early "selling tickets", when the tournament has not yet started. Sharing from the Board of Directors of the Center for Culture, Information and Sports of Dong Anh District (Hanoi): "We hope that the audience will enter the largest stadium to cheer. The organizing committee creates maximum conditions for fans to watch because volleyball is the most attractive sport in Dong Anh. In addition, the locality organizes a ticket sale at a price of 50,000 VND/ticket that is completely suitable for everyone's budget and if you buy tickets, fans can watch all matches in one day of competition".
