Chinese Volleyball Team Wear Mask During Asian Match in the Philippines

The volleyball association of China issued an apology on Friday following its failure to instruct its women’s football team to get rid of their face masks during their match in the Philippines for the Asian Cup. 

Failure to remove the masks during the game

During their opening game on Thursday with Iran’s women’s football team, the Chinese team lost to their opponent. They failed to remove their face mask during the game but ended up with a total score of 3-1. 

Additionally, they ranked as the top team in their group while the team is headed toward the quarter-finals. The game could be a precursor to the World Cup, while the online betting odds world cup 2022 is up.

According to an AFP reporter, a few of the players started to get rid of their face masks before the conclusion of the first set that occurred in Pasig City. However, during the second and third sets of the tournament, all of the players removed all of their facemasks.

The China Volleyball Association instructed their players to keep their tight-fitting face masks on in the international tournament. While the association intended to adhere to health protocols, it also sparked concern among fans and critics of the women’s football team. 

In the last eight matches on Saturday, China clashed against the women’s team Australia. While they lost in the match against Iran, the incident garnered more attention than their failure.  

Fans expressed their concern online

According to several Chinese social media outlets, some fans voiced their concerns online regarding the incident. They specifically point out that they were bothered by the mask-wearing of the players and expressed concerns about their health. 

One netizen from Weibo (a platform that resembles Twitter), thought the incident was meme-worthy and expressed his disbelief that the players will play wearing masks on. Several images about the incident were distributed on social media and one in particular garnered 5,000 likes.

Among the major nations in the world, China is the only one that is still adhering to its policy of zero tolerance for Covid-19. The Asian country is still implementing strict lockdowns across the country, as well as travel constraints and an array of testing protocols that are still ongoing in every public place along with mask-wearing.

The association issued an apology

According to a post from the Weibo account of the China Volleyball Association, they apologized for the incident during the Asian Cup that was in Pasig City, Philippines. They mentioned that the incident will never happen again and that they will not tolerate any violations of the Covid-19 health protocols. 

The association also mentioned that the team has encouraged all of the players from the roster to wear masks as they are accessing the premises after they found out that a few players tested positive with Covid-19 virus. 

They also said that the organizing committee of the tournament did not have crystal clear instructions about the rules regarding whether the players should wear a mask during the game. They stated that their athletes wore face masks following the beginning of the game to defend themselves from contracting the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the organizing committee responded to the statement of the China Volleyball Association. They stated that as a result of the lack of experience of the committee on the field, they did not instruct the players to remove their masks during the event.

Final words

The national women’s volleyball team of China is one of the most prolific groups of athletes in the world and they became a worldwide sensation in the world of sports. Additionally, following the victory of the Chinese women’s team in the 2019 World Cup where they claimed the highly-coveted gold medal. Meanwhile, the betting odds in world cup 2022 are already available online.