PNVF, PVL now on the same page

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WITH the Philippine National Volleyball Federation and the Premier Volleyball League now on the same page, PVL players can be released for the national team in international competitions.

Sports Vision chief Ricky Palou, whose outfit organizes the PVL, announced this welcome development yesterday during the press launch of the PVL All-Filipino Conference opening on Feb. 20 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

“Since the PVL competitions are now synchronized with the international volleyball calendar, PVL clubs can release their players called up by the PNVF for overseas competition,” Palou said during the press briefing at the Discovery Suites in Mandaluyong. “We are now on the same page.”

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There was friction last year between the local volleyball federation and the country’s top women’s league due to the unavailability of its players for the country’s international commitments like the 32nd Cambodia Southeast Asian Games and the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games due to conflicting league schedules.

This led PNVF chief Ramon “Tats Suzara” to find players elsewhere to form the national women’s squad minus some of arguably the best athletes in the land playing in the PVL.

Palou, a member of the PNVF board, said this will no longer happen now that the league’s competition schedule has been aligned with the international calendar of the International Volleyball Federation, the world body for the sport known by its French acronym FIVB.

“The All-Filipino Conference will end around late May so that PVL club players can be released once they are called up by the PNVF for the national team,” Palou said.

With the PVL expanding to 12 clubs for the All-Filipino Conference, the PNVF will now have an even wider pool to choose from, he noted.

He said the PVL intends to come up with an import-laced conference so that parity can still be maintained once the players of some teams are called up for national team duty.

“The decision on whether there will be one or two imports per team will all depend on the consensus of the clubs,” Palou said.

He stressed that PVL players called up for the national team must honor their commitment to flag and country or else they would be barred from playing for their respective clubs without valid reasons.

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