MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russian Volleyball Federation (VFB) clubs have been invited to participate in the 2025 NAS Sports Tournament in Dubai, VFB Secretary General Alexander Yaremenko said on Wednesday.
The 2025 NAS Sports Tournament in Dubai will take place from March 12-20.
"We have received invitations," Russian sports daily Sports Express quoted Yaremenko as saying. "However, the calendar for the Russian Championship’s tournaments was already finalized, which complicates things - we are holding our playoffs at that time."
"We are currently doing everything we can to get our clubs in to this tournament," he continued.
According to him, the Russian championship’s qualifiers coincide with "the tournament in Dubai, so theoretically the teams who go there would be the ones in the top-4 as well those in the 13-15 range following the regular championship," Yaremenko said.
"Participation in this tournament will depend on the readiness of our clubs, their results and intentions," he added.
"This is an exceptional case under a tight-packed calendar that includes national tournaments, the League of Champions and European Cup competitions [in volleyball]. This is why the tournament are not organized within such timeframe," Yaremenko explained.
"The United Arab Emirates have no such-scale competitions [in this sport] and that is why they traditionally organize such sports tournaments during the Holy Month of Ramadan," he stated.
Speaking about possible participants in the upcoming tournament, Yaremenko said that "we have neither finally-approved schedule nor the list of participants, but organizers say that top two Italian clubs will participate."
IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.