Criticism from the Volleyball Federation Over Iran's Girls' Team Poor Results in Asia

The Iranian girls' national volleyball team lost both of its group stage matches in the Asian Youth Championship against Vietnam and Thailand, with identical scores of three to zero, prompting criticism from the Volleyball Federation regarding this failure. The Asian-Oceanian Championship for girls under 20 is being held in China, and the team, coached by Padeh Belourizadeh, was eliminated from qualifying for the top eight teams after suffering two defeats. Dorsa Fallah, Mobina Ghafarian, Pariya Hajatmand, Asiyeh Hasani, Shaghayegh Hassan Khani, Sepinoud Dasht Barjan, and Negar Hashemi were the starters for Iran in these matches. The team now has to play against Australia to secure a ranking between ninth and twelfth. Shaghayegh Hassan Khani, who was the top scorer for Iran in the first match with 7 points, scored 13 points in the second match, making her the highest scorer for Iran. The Iranian Volleyball Federation stated about the defeats: 'Excessive stress is evident among the players. Pressure from those around them has caused them to dedicate time to stress reduction before each match, which is sometimes uncontrollable and makes the team's results unbelievable.' Hediyeh Talai, Iran's power receiver, who was injured in the first point of the first game, appeared in a wheelchair during the match against Thailand. Padeh Belourizadeh, the head coach of Iran, stated after the first game: 'The girls could not overcome the crisis caused by Talai's injury. They executed even 10 percent of what we expected.' However, he expressed satisfaction with Iran's performance against Thailand, saying: 'I wish the match against Thailand had been our first match. If the players had performed the same way against Vietnam, we would likely have come off the court successfully.' The official website of the Volleyball Federation noted: 'A team that has undergone more than four months of good training suddenly becomes a weak team, causing cold sweat on the coach's forehead.' The federation believes that the successful sets lost by the Iranian girls, which were close in score, were due to 'emotional control.' This analysis of Iran's failure does not mention issues related to the enforcement of mandatory hijab during games or the impacts of gender discrimination in Iranian sports, including the lack of televised broadcasts of the matches. These championships have been held since 1980, but Iran's first participation was in 2010 due to the ban on sending girls' teams. The Volleyball Federation wrote about the continuation of the competitions: 'We must see if the girls will eventually overcome negative thoughts and the virus of stress to achieve their first victory.' In the previous tournament, which featured 9 teams without Australia and New Zealand, Iran finished in sixth place. In the 2018 competitions, Iran ranked eighth among 15 teams; titles that, given the failure to qualify for the top eight teams, are unlikely to be repeated in this year's games.