Actually, the German volleyball players should have played against China. But nothing came of it – the players didn’t want to compete.
The German volleyball players did not play their game against China as part of the Nations League in the Philippine city of Quezon City. The game is rated 3-0 for China. 21 members of the Chinese delegation, including a number of players, had tested positive for Covid-19 after their arrival in the island state, but were declared fit to play by the local authorities on Thursday.
“For us it is incomprehensible how the FIVB (the world association, editor’s note) does not want to play the game against China five days after the positive PCR tests, without another PCR test for the greatest possible safety of everyone involved,” said the German Volleyball Association (DVV) in an official statement.
“This makes us angry and stunned”
“The FIVB does not consider it necessary to increase the safety for us players with a single official control test. That makes us angry and stunned,” said captain Christian Fromm of the ARD sports show. National coach Michał Winiarski stated that he “cannot force players to play against potentially infected opponents”.
The world association did not follow the suggestion to postpone the game to a later date, the DVV said: “Physical health has the highest priority for us as a team. For this reason, we made the decision not to play the game against China .”