"It's not fair at all" Foreign director's remarks, Korean Air's 'just before PS' foreigners are replaced

*This content was translated by AI.

Philip Blanc (66, France), manager of men's professional volleyball Hyundai Capital, evaluated Jose Maso (29, Cuba), a new foreign player of Korean Air, who clashed for the first time in the first time in the championship match (champ match), as "a player who will bring a positive wind to Korean Air." However, just before the postseason, he said, "It is absolutely not fair" to replace Korean Air's foreign players.

Coach Blanc said in a meeting with reporters after losing 2-3 (19-25, 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 11-15) to Korean Air in the first round of the men's V-League championship of Jin Air 2025-2026 at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on the 2nd. The fact that the attack success rate exceeded 70% means that it showed a good performance."

Maso, whom Hyundai Capital faced for the first time on this day, is a new foreign player who joined Korean Air on the 19th of last month, the final day of the regular league. At the time, Korean Air announced that it would replace foreign players with Maso due to poor performance and sluggish performance in the second half of the season of Kyle Russell (33, USA), who played throughout this season. Russell, who played throughout the regular season, left the team at the start of the postseason, and instead made his V-League debut on the stage of the championship with Maso joining as a new player.

The presence was remarkable. Maso, who recorded four points including one block from the first set as a middle blocker and a 100% attack success rate, only slowed down to one point in the second set, five points each in the third and fourth sets, and three points in the last five sets. In the end, Maso took the lead in the team's come-from-behind victory with 18 points, including 12 fastballs and two blocks, with a 71.4% attack success rate. Hyundai Capital tried hard to respond to Maso, who faced him for the first time in the championship, but was struggling. Coach Blanc also applauded the performance itself after the game, even if it was an opposing player.

However, when asked about Korean Air's move to replace foreign players ahead of the postseason, Blanc answered firmly, "I don't think it's fair at all." It is not a fair competition to replace foreign players at the end of the season to reinforce their power, not due to inevitable reasons such as injuries.

Manager Blanc said, "Even in the international volleyball world, replacing (registered) players can only be replaced on the basis of medical findings. There may be complaints within the team that it is unfair to replace it as you wish, he added.

In this regard, Korean Air coach Henan Dal Zotto (66, Brazil) said, "There was no such thing," when asked by reporters about "whether there were any injury-related issues such as medical findings" at the time of Russell's replacement. When asked if there was a case of replacing a foreign player just before the championship, he answered, "There was no case in the league I experienced." Henan has been a manager in the Brazilian and Italian leagues.

Henan added that replacing foreign players with Maso instead of Russell was only a decision for the team's strength. Lim Dong-hyuk, who plays the role of Afogit Spiker, is also the future of Korean volleyball. Since the team's middle blockers had minor injuries, they replaced Maso in case they could feel the absence in the middle and apogit, he said. "In this situation, if there were both Lim Dong-hyuk and Russell, one of the two had to go to the bench. "It would have been an unjust decision for the two players," he explained.

The problem is that this is not the first time that Korean Air has replaced foreign players ahead of the postseason. Korean Air has already used a strategy to replace foreign players just before the postseason by recruiting Maxim Zigalov just before the championship in 2024 and Russell in March last year. This year, he also had Maso instead of Russell on the final day of the regular league.

However, that does not mean that Korean Air has replaced foreign players while violating V-League regulations. In fact, the V-League only has restrictions on registration of domestic players, but foreign players can be replaced without restrictions. There are also no restrictions on the timing of registration. In other words, the Korean Air team is using a foreign player replacement card within the regulations. Coach Blanc also said, "It's in accordance with the V-League regulations, so we have no choice but to respect it."

Meanwhile, Maso, who successfully made his V-League debut on the same day, expressed his strong will in the new team, saying, "I will play even if the coach tells me to play Libero."

"I didn't expect it to be an easy game," Maso said. There were good moments and difficult moments, but the team didn't give up because they were united," he said. "I'm happy to win the first game. I will melt into the team and win the next game," he said.

"I actually felt bad," he said, after not being nominated in last year's V-League tryout. Still, hope was not lost. I was more happy when I received a call from Korean Air ahead of the championship, he said. "I was playing for Iran, and I had escaped because of the war. The V-League was a league I've always wanted to come to, and I was happy to have a sense of relief that I could continue my career."

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*This content was translated by AI.