With all the commotion going on in professional volleyball, we at FOTB would like to make your lives easier and explain the situation as clear and simple.
Recently, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (better known as FIVB) – the main governing body of volleyball in the world – just awarded Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas (also better known as LVPI) as the main governing body of volleyball in the Philippines.
The memo also says that the Philippine Volleyball Federation/PVF is now suspended under the order. Prior to the memo, the Philippines had two governing bodies – the PVF and the LVPI, which explains why we have two separate professional leagues: Premier Volleyball League/PVL or Philippine SuperLiga/PSL. The two bodies have been going back and forth at each other for the past couple of years as TV deals and player’ rights started to make Philippine Volleyball a game of money.
The memorandum states that the LVPI has the authority to conduct volleyball tournaments and put up a national team, which is the dealbreaker.
To help the national team in their training, a charity event (dubbed “Clash of Heroes”) was organized last May 15 at the Filoil Flying V Center. The event was already postponed, having the dates moved from April 28 to May 15 by LVPI to give way for the ADMU-DLSU UAAP Volleyball Finals. The fans still did their part and showed support for the team, but unfortunately, key players were absent for the exhibition game with Alyssa Valdez, Marck Espejo, Aby Marano, and Kianna Dy unable to participate.
Certain PVL clubs held back their players from participating due to their imports for the league still haven’t received their International Transfer Certificates. They blamed it on the LVPI, which resulted to Pocari Sweat, Bali Pure, and Creamline barring their players from playing.
With this being the last game prior to the selection of the national team, their absence affected the chances of some players from representing our country for the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship in Kazakhstan. Certainly, this will affect the legacies of some players and may want to rethink their future plans after this.
Yes, there is already a verdict between the two bodies but they still cannot come together to make Philippine volleyball bigger than it is today.
-Kyle Reiner Pineda
Fresh Off The Bench 