Two days after Bulgaria's 3:2 victory over Poland and the subsequent storm surrounding Aleksandar Nikolov's gesture in the tie-break, positions emerged in the Polish media that view the incident in a completely different light.
On Friday, Polish national player Bartłomiej Bołądź commented on the topic for WP SportoweFakty, and a few hours earlier, Przegląd Sportowy Onet journalist Edyta Kowalczyk published an editorial comment titled: "Aleksandar Nikolov's provocation? In my opinion, he did nothing wrong."

Bołądź: Volleyball is not chess

WP SportoweFakty correspondent in Sofia, Arkadiusz Dudziak, sought the opinion of Poland's opposite hitter Bartłomiej Bołądź on the situation with Nikolov.
The Polish national player explained that he did not notice the gesture at the moment of the situation itself, but he sees nothing unusual in such a display of emotion.
"I didn't notice it. Volleyball is not chess. We cannot sterilize or soften this sport too much. It's not the first time in my career I've seen such gestures, so I wasn't surprised when they happened," Bołądź told WP SportoweFakty.

According to him, what happened should also be viewed through the prism of the atmosphere in the hall and the tension in the match.
"Such behavior certainly stems from strong emotions. The hall was full, and the Bulgarians were playing in front of their home crowd," added the Polish national player.
When asked if he thought the outrage on social media was excessive, Bołądź declined to evaluate the reactions:
"I don't know, because I don't read articles, I avoid the media. This case simply doesn't concern me."

Edyta Kowalczyk: In my opinion, Nikolov did nothing wrong

Even before Bołądź's statement, one of Poland's recognizable volleyball journalists – Edyta Kowalczyk from Przegląd Sportowy Onet – published an editorial comment in which she also did not accept the harsh criticisms of the Bulgarian national player's behavior.
The title itself is eloquent enough: "Aleksandar Nikolov's provocation? In my opinion, he did nothing wrong."
Kowalczyk writes that she does not understand the fuss around Nikolov's gesture and is far from calling it scandalous. According to her, there have been situations in volleyball where boundaries were unequivocally crossed, but this case is not among them.

"Volleyball is already a sport that rules have made extremely sterile, where even a glance across the net at an opponent can be penalized. Do we really want to strip this sport of all emotions?" writes the Przegląd Sportowy Onet journalist.
Kowalczyk then uses a rather colorful example of how people who don't like volleyball sometimes treat it:
"A sport for community centers, not particularly serious, where adult men pat each other on the butt after winning a point" – this is how people who, to put it mildly, don't like this sport, dismissively talk about volleyball.
And she immediately explains why, in her opinion, such definitions appear – true sharp confrontations between players are rarely seen on the volleyball court. That is precisely why Kowalczyk raises the question of how far the desire to protect the sport from provocations and strong emotions should go.
The journalist views Nikolov's gesture precisely through this prism – as part of the enormous emotional charge of the tie-break against Poland, and not as a literal message or threat to the opponent.

Two different positions, but a similar argument

Thus, within just a few hours, two separate voices with quite similar theses came from Poland.
Bolondz speaks as a Polish national and a person who was on the court in Sofia. Kowalczyk – as a journalist who has been closely following Polish and international volleyball for years. Both, however, emphasize the same thing – emotions are part of sports and their excessive restriction can turn it into a sterile spectacle.
This, of course, does not mean that the attitude in Poland towards Aleksandar Nikolov's gesture has suddenly changed. The sharp reactions after the match were many. But other positions are now being heard – including from a Polish national and from a journalist from one of the country's largest sports media outlets.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov