During the meeting between Chinese and Iranian volleyball players, currently engaged in the Asian Cup in the Philippines, the players from the Middle Empire played with an anti-covid mask.
The Chinese Volleyball Federation apologized on Friday for not asking members of its women’s team, currently involved in the Asian Cup in the Philippines, to remove their masks during a match against Iran. The Chinese players, dressed in red and equipped with white face masks, faced the Iranians in black jerseys, pants and hijabs. An unusual scene that had surprised many internet users in China. China’s team, one of the best in the world, won the match 3-1 in Pasig, the Philippines, where the competition is being held, on Thursday, taking first place in their group. Just before the end of the first set, which they lost, some players began to remove their masks, gradually imitated by all of their teammates, noted an AFP journalist.
Many Chinese Internet users had expressed their concern for the health of the sportswomen. “I thought it was a joke seeing that. I didn’t imagine that they had really played with their masks!”, Wrote a user of the Chinese social network Weibo, in tune with the general tone of the comments.
The staff made the players wear masks when they entered the stadium
China is one of the few countries to continue to apply a strict health policy in the face of Covid-19, with localized confinements, travel restrictions, quasi-compulsory PCR tests and the wearing of masks recommended or even imposed. In response to the growing controversy, the Chinese Volleyball Federation, in a message posted on its Weibo account, apologized for “causing the attention and concern of the general public”. The staff made the players wear masks when they entered the stadium, after learning that sportswomen from other participating nations had Covid-19, the statement said. All matches in the tournament, which ends on Monday, are played at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
“The organizing committee having not published clear rules on whether or not sportswomen should wear a mask during the matches, our sportswomen, to protect themselves, wore masks after the start of the match”, explains the Chinese Volleyball Federation. “Due to our lack of experience, we did not notify the players in due time to remove their masks,” his message read. China’s women’s volleyball team is one of the best in the world. World champion in 2019, she won the Olympic title in Rio in 2016.