“It is better to start in the ranks of a fighter who loves volleyball wholeheartedly.” VFV General Secretary – about Coach Voronkov

The All-Russian Volleyball Federation (VVF) believes that it is better to leave a coach as experienced as Andrei Voronkov who loves volleyball selflessly, VFV general secretary told Alexander Yaremenko commenting on the reduction of the specialist disqualification.

In May 2022, the VFV executive committee disqualified Voronkov, then head of Lokomotiv, for two years for racially slurring Cuban volleyball player Uralochka Ailama Montalvo. On May 3, it became known that the second year of disqualification had been replaced by a conditional year, and Voronkov could return to training as early as May this year. On the same day, Voronkov, in an interview with , said he was not racist and offered a heartfelt public apology to Montalvo, whom he meant no offense.

– We don’t have a repressive body, we have a public body. Society is made up of volleyball lovers, everyone can make a mistake, everyone can behave incorrectly in certain situations. Our task is not only to punish, but also to educate. We know that Voronkov has a great athletic career, a huge coaching career. What happened to him is more or less clear from a day-to-day perspective. We think it’s best to leave such a fighter in the ranks who loves volleyball wholeheartedly. He sincerely repented, understood what had happened. Therefore, such a decision was made.

– Voronkov issued a public apology to Ailama on the site. Was this a prerequisite for changing the suspension period?

No, it’s a personal matter. He apologized both in writing and orally to the members of the VFV Presidium. A public apology probably won’t hurt. If a person sincerely apologizes, why not do it publicly? Yaremenko told .

Voronkov on May 12, 2022, during a timeout in the fifth game of the final series of the Russian championship with Uralochka, giving an instruction to his players, dismissed Valery Zaitseva and said: “Why are you still catching this monkey ?” The phrase hit the tune “”. At this time, Montalvo was on the field in the Sverdlovsk region team, which later left the club.