As the 2021 Africa U-18 girls and U-19 boys Volleyball Nations Cup tournaments get underway, the confederation of Africa Volleyball, CAVB, and the Nigerian Volleyball Federation, NVBF, have expressed regret over the inability of the Egyptian teams to honour the tournament because of COVID-19.
CAVB Delegate, Bai Dodon Jallow and NVBF President, Musa Nimrod who both expressed their dismay at the development at the technical committee meeting and competition draw, urged participating teams to compete fairly and ensure that they abide by the preventive measures of the pandemic.
After indicating the interest to participate in both tournaments, some players in Egypt’s squad returned positive tests, a few hours after their departure from Cairo to Nigeria.
The limited-time for isolation automatically ruled them out of the tournament to further shrink the number of participating teams for both competitions to just seven as against 14.
On his part, the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Habu Gumel, who doubles as the President of the CAVB U-19 Control Board, assured a level playing ground to all participating nations.
Nigeria, Morocco, Cameroon, and the Gambia will compete in the boys u-19 while the U18 girls’ cup will be completed for, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon.
At stake is two qualification spot each for the U-18 girls’ World Cup in Mexico and the under -19 boys World Cup in Iran.