Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Tats Suzara expressed his delight after the Premier Volleyball League was able to get the commitment of all the top volleyball teams in the country.
After all, any milestone achieved this year is a huge breakthrough after the crisis that was 2020.
“Any development for any league means good news for the PNVF because, anyway, all of these leagues are stakeholders of the Federation,” Suzara told Tiebreaker Times when asked about his reaction to the exodus of five Philippine Superliga teams to the PVL. PVL president Ricky Palou is a board member of the newly-formed volleyball body.
“Whether, it’s the PVL, the BVR, the PSL, UAAP, or NCAA or other leagues, as long as it involves volleyball or beach volleyball, then we can say that we are slowly moving forward especially coming from a full year without play.”
MVP group teams Cignal and PLDT were the first to make the jump, making it official last March 3. Seven days later, Chery Tiggo and Sta. Lucia announced their transfer just hours apart.
Finally last Thursday, F2 Logistics heeded the clamor of the entire volleyball community as they left the PSL for good and join the pro league.
The five teams will join Creamline, Petro Gazz, BaliPure, Perlas, Choco Mucho, Army, and newcomer UAC for the 2021 PVL Open Conference set to begin on May 8 at INSPIRE Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
Safe to say, this is the strongest field ever in one tournament, accomplishing one of the 10-point agendas of the PNVF which is to “serve Filipino families with entertainment through volleyball and to make volleyball a widely played sport by elevating it through high-performance competition.”
What happens though with the second agenda of the PNVF which is to organize a national championship with the Champions League? Will it still make sense even if the PVL technically has all the champion teams in the country?
Well for Suzara, the federation-backed national championship is still in the pipeline.
“PNVF will still continue to follow the club system and leagues of the FIVB which is why we are launching the first-ever Federation-owned national league to be branded as Champions League before the end of the year,” shared Suzara as the target date of July has been moved for the nationals.
“We are trying to formulate the schedule for this year for both women and men, in order to annex to the training and preparation initiatives of our National Teams. We also want to plan the Champions League carefully so we can continue providing the volleyball-loving public with the family sport entertainment they have been craving for a long time.”
Suzara had earlier shared that the Champions League, which will be greatly influenced by the tournaments organized by the Thailand Volleyball Association and the Indonesian Volleyball Federation, will feature top teams from the PVL and PSL, the collegiate leagues, and a couple of selection teams from the South.
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