Great Britain women’s team will not be distracted from their Olympic preparations in the wake of the news that Algeria will not attend this weekend’s scheduled double-header at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.
The African champions, who will face GB at the Olympics in London, were due to play dress rehearsal matches on Friday (1pm) and Saturday (3pm) at the venue.
But at the eleventh hour, Algeria informed the British Volleyball Federation that the correct paperwork had not been cleared and they could now not fulfil the fixtures.
The BVF endeavoured to find a replacement National Team with approaches made to numerous International Federations, however at such late notice, it proved impossible.
Instead, the GB Women will play 2 games against a Men’s British Select Team.
The team has been hand-picked from throughout Britain to ensure they test the women in all departments of the game.
In this way, the GB women will still have two high-calibre matches to help their Olympic preparations and Glasgow school children, a crowd of 600 are expected for Friday’s opening match will still get a chance to see top-class Olympic action.
Spectators who purchased tickets in advance for Saturday’s match will be refunded. Entry will now be free of charge with the opportunity to see the GB Team in action.
“Of course, it would have been good to see Algeria so close to the Olympics but they will be feeling the same about us,” said Great Britain head coach Audrey Cooper.
“This will give us two high-quality matches and give the players an ideal workout at this stage of our preparations.
“I’m very pleased with the way our preparations have gone so far and we beat Finland in five matches out of five in our ten-day training camp in Finland where we attempted to replicate the programme we will face at London 2012.
“It will be interesting to see how our players react to this latest test that has been put before them.”
Both games will take place at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on Friday 22nd June at 13.00 and Saturday 23rd June at 15.00.
For further information go to www.britishvolleyball.org
Further information: Roddy Mackenzie, Final Whistle Media (07885 616473)