The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL) will not be held in Macau this year and may not return to the Special Administrative Region anytime soon, the president of Sports Bureau (ID), Pun Weng Kun, has admitted in a reply to the media on the sidelines of the Dragon Boat Races press conference.
Questioned by the media on the topic, Pun said, “Everyone is dealing with the pandemic [according to their capacities] and the FIVB has decided [this year] to find one location to host this event [the VNL],” adding, “all the teams will convene at this single location and the entire competition will be held there. There will not be other rounds [of the event] taking place anywhere else.”
“[According to our information] Macau was not the chosen location for the hosting of this event. As far as we know, it will be hosted in Italy, but we do not have any further information on this yet,” Pun remarked.
Questioned as to the possible return of the event to Macau after the pandemic, Pun said, “It is still a possibility, but this has to do with the FIVB,” adding, “We are considering other options of […] events from other sports that are more beneficial to the local sports scene and that are more popular among the local population,” he concluded, hinting that the historical volleyball competition, which has been hosted in Macau for almost 30 years, might be dropped.
The last time the competition was hosted in Macau was in 2019. Last year, the competition was scheduled for June 2 to 4 at the Macao Forum and it was to be one of the legs of the VNL 2020. However the event was called off by the FIVB in response to development of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
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