Surabaya, Indonesia. Vietnam’s U21 women’s volleyball team has been stripped of most of its points and relegated to the bottom of Pool A at the 2025 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women’s U21 World Championship in Surabaya, East Java, after the federation found the team had fielded two male players.

The disciplinary ruling came after an investigation confirmed that players Dang Thi Hong and Phuong Quynh were ineligible to compete in the women’s event under Article 12.2 of the 2023 FIVB Disciplinary Regulations.

The FIVB said in a statement on Wednesday that, under Articles 13.5.2 of the Event Regulations and 14.4 of the Disciplinary Regulations, the disciplinary subcommittee had decided to forfeit all matches of the Vietnam national team involving the ineligible players and to disqualify them from the championship with immediate effect.

The controversy had been brewing since earlier this week, when reports surfaced that the two athletes were undergoing gender verification tests. Sources indicated that one of them, Dang Thi Hong, was confirmed to be male. Both players were dropped from Vietnam’s final pool match against Puerto Rico on Tuesday, which Vietnam won 3-1 (25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 25-22). That result will stand, as the ineligible players did not participate.

Before the ruling, Vietnam sat in second place in Pool A with four wins and 12 points, having beaten Indonesia, Canada, and Serbia, and losing only to Argentina. Those three earlier wins have now been annulled, slashing their tally to just three points from a single victory, and dropping them to last place.

The sanctions mean Vietnam will no longer advance to the Round of 16. Their spot in the knockout stage has been taken by Indonesia, while Serbia moves up in the standings. Vietnam will instead compete in classification matches for 17th to 24th place.

Vietnam’s volleyball federation acknowledged in a statement that the players had been randomly selected for testing under tournament rules and were asked to provide complete match records.