Russian Alexey Spiridonov is known for his hot temper and on court antics. This weekend he added another chapter to his long list of disciplinary actions taken against him. During Game 1 of the 2017/18 Superliga play-out match against Dinamo Oblast, which Spiridinov’s Yenisei Krasnoyarsk won 3-1, a furious Spiridinov kicked his coach’s chair after being blocked on a back-row hit. The chair rolled over and broke the arena’s time-out button, . Spiridonov was ejected from the game.
The Russian Volleyball Federation suspended Spiridinov for two matches, while fining him on about 900 USD. Him team was also tagged with a fine of the same amount. Krasnoyarsk then went on to lose its next game, tying the series on 1-1. His head coach said Spiridinov’s absence really cost the team (Championat.com):
“I’m not happy with the game. If team had performed as we practiced, the result would be different. We made many mistakes in the offensive side. I have not seen the statistics yet. I will now review both matches and work on the errors. Let’s be frank, Alexei would help us. We did not have enough. Platenenkov did good as his replacement, but it’s a matter of experience.”
Once again Spiridonov hurt his team because of his temper. Let’s not forget that this is a player who despite young, has already been punished by FIVB in a few occasions, and has since been ostracized from the Russian national team.
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