In this file photo from March 1, 2020, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate (L) and GS Caltex Kixx play their women’s V-League volleyball regular season match behind closed doors at Suwon Gymnasium in Suwon, 45 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean professional volleyball season has been canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO) announced on Monday that the remainder of the V-League regular season and playoffs for both men and women will be wiped out.
KOVO reached the conclusion after an emergency board meeting with representatives from 13 men’s and women’s V-League teams — their second such meeting in five days.
The V-League is the second major pro sport circuit in South Korea to bite the bullet and bring the competition to an end.
Last Friday, the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL) decided to cancel all remaining regular season and playoff games.
This is the first incomplete season in the history of the V-League, which was launched in 2005.
The last V-League matches were played on March 1. The seven men’s and six women’s teams had played a few earlier games without fans, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, before KOVO shuttered doors altogether.
In the V-League, seven men’s teams play 36 matches each, and six women’s teams play 30 matches apiece. When the men’s competition came to a halt, teams had played 31 to 33 matches.
The women’s teams had 26 or 27 matches in the books at the time of suspension. In all, there were 14 men’s and 10 women’s regular season contests remaining.
KOVO said championships will not be awarded, and the final regular season standings will be set retroactively to the 30-game mark for men, and 25-game point for women.
That is the conclusion of the fifth “round” in both competitions. Teams play each other once in each round, meaning one round is made up of six matches for men and five matches for women.
The Woori Card Wibee ended at the top of the men’s league with 64 points (23-7), just ahead of the Korean Air Jumbos (62 points, 22-8).
The Hyundai E&C Hillstate were the women’s champions with 52 points and a 19-6 mark, and GS Caltex Kixx finished in second place at 51 points and a 17-8 record.
In the V-League, a 3-0 victory and a 3-1 victory are worth three points, while a 3-2 victory is worth two points. The team that loses a five-set affair also gets a point.
When V-League screeched to a halt, Woori Card had 69 points (25-7) and Korean Air had 65 points (23-8) with one game in hand.
This file photo from Feb. 25, 2020, shows a men’s V-League volleyball match between home team Kepco Vixtorm and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Bluefangs taking place without fans in the stands. (Yonhap)
The race was tighter on the women’s side, with just one point separating Hyundai E&C (55 points, 20-7) and GS Caltex (54 points, 18-9).
The top three teams in each league receive prize money ranging from 30 million won to 120 million won (US$23,670 to $94,690), and it will all be donated to help with quarantining efforts against COVID-19.
KOVO had designs on resuming play in late March or early April under a compressed schedule to finish out the regular season.
The playoffs would likely have been shortened in that scenario, so that the champions would be determined by April 15 at the latest.
That’s the day of parliamentary elections, and many of V-League arenas are scheduled to serve as voting count stations.
KOVO and team reps also discussed jumping straight to the playoffs or playing out the rest of the regular season and awarding first-place teams with championships without staging the playoffs.
But the spread of the virus has shown few signs of abating, particularly with concerns about cluster infections and imported cases mounting.
And last Saturday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun urged suspension of operations for indoor sports and entertainment facilities through April 5 in a nationwide social distancing drive.
Elsewhere, the men’s Korean Basketball League (KBL) shut down following three games on Feb. 29 and its initial plan was to resume play on March 29.
It will hold talks with club officials Tuesday, with the WKBL’s recent cancellation expected to impact their decision.
The K League, the men’s football circuit, hasn’t even kicked off, after delaying its Feb. 29 start of the new season. There’s no word yet on when the season will start.
The Korea Baseball Organization has pushed its Opening Day from March 28 to sometime in April. The league will meet with club presidents Tuesday to possibly settle on a start date or at least move closer to doing so.
(Yonhap)
