Flight Delayed For Polish National Team En Route To Third Round

A late plane arrival on September 24th in Varna, Bulgaria left the Polish team waiting, delaying their plans to fly to Milan, Italy for the third round of the FIVB World Championships.

According to the Polish publication Polsat Sport, the team lost a day of rest between their final match of the second round against Serbia, and their first match of the third round on September 26th due to the delay in air travel.

In the middle of their travel troubles team manager Mariusz Szyszko told Polsat Sport, “We just landed in Milan. It’s 22 o’clock, we’re still waiting for our luggage. Then the bus. We arrive at the earliest to the north. We set off at 13. Food? Only what can be bought at the airport. We’re just wondering what to do. Eat here or can stop along the way. But will we find something decent to eat at this time.”

A tweet by Polska Siatkowka (the Polish national volleyball team), showed a picture of the team waiting for their plane in the airport 14-minutes after they were scheduled to take off.

Roughly translated from Polish the caption read, “Varna Polish volleyball players should have left 14-minutes ago. No plane has arrived in Sofia. May these be the last difficulties in the mission.”

Start z Warny polscy siatkarze powinni mieć 14 minut temu, ale… z Sofii nie przyleciał jeszcze samolot 😱✈ Oby były to ostatnie trudności w misji #ObronaMistrzostwaŚwiata 😎 pic.twitter.com/feFqQfLKdZ

— POLSKA SIATKÓWKA (@PolskaSiatkowka) September 24, 2018

The players later took a flight with the Serbian and American national teams, where once again Szyszko was not happy.

“The plan from Sofia to Milan as not small, but the place between the seats was like a cat crying…the boys really suffered, Szyszko said. “Fortunately, everyone except fatigue feel ok. Nobody complains about injuries.”

Their travel issues occurred after an eventful competition for Poland where they’ve complained about the hotel and food situation, had to take cabs due to inadequate transportation,  had an altercation under the net with the Bulgarian national team, had two players fined for skipping the mixed zone after a match with Iran, and had their captain and top scorer Michal Kubiak miss multiple matches due to illness.