“Planned to be organized by Russia, the volleyball world championships scheduled for August will be held in Poland and Slovenia”- announced Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at a special press conference at the seat of the Polish Olympic Committee.

The conference was attended by: Minister of Sports Kamil Bortniczuk, President of the Polish Volleyball Federation Sebastian Świderski, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. At the beginning of the press conference, the head of government referred to the events behind Poland’s eastern border.

“The world championship was supposed to be organized by Russia, but can you imagine that fans listen to the Russian national anthem and chant “Rasija, Rasija” as if nothing else happened, while the Russian troops are massacring Ukrainians?”, asked the prime minister.

“We suggested to do this tournament not in Russia, but in Poland. And we won this race to organize the world championship. This is a record pace at which we have to do all the organizational matters. But we like to break records. We invited Slovenes to the joint organization and they agreed without hesitation”, reported Mateusz Morawiecki.

The Minister of Sports Kamil Bortniczuk added that Poland will be the main organizer of the championship and will host two 1/8 final matches, two quarter-finals, two semi-finals, a final and a match for third place. The championship title will be defended by the Poles. They were also the best in 2014 and 2018.

The volleyball World Cup was to be held in Russia in August. After the aggression against Ukraine, the right to organize the event was revoked, and Russian national teams and clubs were excluded from all competitions.

The International Volleyball Federation started an urgent search for a new host for the volleyball world championships in early March, applications had to be submitted until March 14. Applications have been prepared for independent organizers and for countries that would like to co-organize the tournament with other federations.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński