After the incident at the U21 World Volleyball Championship in Indonesia, outside hitter Đặng Thị Hồng will not be joining the 2025 Vietnamese Youth Volleyball Club Championship.
The roster for the 2025 National Youth Club Volleyball Cup has just been released by the clubs. Notably, Đặng Thị Hồng’s name does not appear on the registration list. Although she is still playing for Vietinbank in the first round of the national championship and is age-eligible, her absence remains unexplained.
Đặng Thị Hồng will not be competing in the 2025 youth volleyball tournament.
The 2025 youth volleyball championship brings together the eight strongest volleyball teams in Vietnam and is for athletes under 19 years old (U19). Each team can add two players under 22 (U22) and two players from other clubs, provided they meet the age requirements.
Earlier, at the U21 World Volleyball Championship, Đặng Thị Hồng was penalized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) for being "ineligible to compete." She was personally banned from all remaining matches, while the Vietnam U21 team was forced to forfeit 0-3 in games against Indonesia (originally won 3-0), Serbia (won 3-1), and Canada (won 3-1), all of which Đặng Thị Hồng participated in. The 3-1 win over U21 Puerto Rico was kept as is because Đặng Thị Hồng did not play in that match.
Previously, as required by the organizers, Đặng Thị Hồng, Như Anh, and Phương Quỳnh had to undergo blood and urine tests. Đặng Thị Hồng and Phương Quỳnh were also required to complete additional paperwork due to some unclear information. Following this, the penalty was issued, and Vietnam U21 dropped from second place to the bottom of the group, missing out on the top 16 teams.
Notably, FIVB still has not provided a specific reason for the sanction against Vietnam U21 and Đặng Thị Hồng individually. They only mentioned "an athlete was ineligible to compete" and refused to make any further comments.