PNVF President Tats Suzara presents a certificate to PVL President Ricky Palou during a press conference on Monday.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Tats Suzara showed his full support for the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) ahead of the first match of the Philippine Conference on Saturday.
Suzara participated in the press launch of the PVL 2024-25 Philippine Conference at Novotel on Monday to certify the PVL as the country’s first and only professional volleyball league and extend the federation’s full support to bring innovations, including referees and world-class statistics.
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“After many years of the PVL’s existence, I would like to finally recognize and certify the Premier Volleyball League as the first and only professional volleyball league in the Philippines,” said Suzara, presenting the certificate to PVL President Ricky Palou. and to the organizers.
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Suzara, the newly elected AVC president, also praised the league for holding a six-month All-Filipino Conference and the improvement of Alas Pilipinas as most of its players helped the national team win three bronze medals this year.
“I think it is a great decision for the PVL to have the longest season of six months. This is the correct way because all club seasons are actually six months long. This should give more playing time to the players,” Suzara said. “I would also like to congratulate the PVL, the coaches and the team managers for supporting the Alas Pilipinas last year. We were able to get at least two bronze medals. We were able to beat Indonesia, so we hope that our next target will be Vietnam and of course Thailand. But again, thanks to the team owners for supporting this.”
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Suzara said that Yul Benosa, president of the PNVF referee commission, will be delegated to supervise the PVL and help improve its refereeing.
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After a controversial finish in the Reinforced Conference semi-final match between Akari and PLDT, the PNVF will also bring in foreign international referees in the best-of-three semi-finals and in the final for impartial refereeing.
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“As [part] of the closer collaboration with the PNVF and our meeting with Sherwin [Malonzo]The commissioner will now appoint Yulo Benosa, our president of the PNVF referee commission, to delegate directly to the PVL. In this way it also raises the level of our referees now in the PVL. Put international referees in all the games,” said Suzara.
“As agreed with the PVL, the PNVF will support the PVL in the semi-finals and finals by bringing in international neutral referees. [from] nearby [countries]. From Hong Kong, Thailand, for two or three weeks so that there really is a fair decision by the referees. Wala ng magsasabi na can bias the referee tong, parehas Filipino, so [we’ll] put international [neutral] referees.”
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The PNVF is also looking to introduce Volleystation, the FIVB’s data collection and management.
“The PNVF has partnered with Volleystation. Now it is the FIVB that elevates data collection and competition management. Some of the teams are now making use of this software. The PNVF is here to support the PVL and I told Ricky Palou that it would be better if all teams benefited from the Volleystation software. It helps statistical analysis of players, including skills,” Suzara said.
Suzara said the All-Filipino Conference champion will also earn the right to play in the first AVC Champions League against the other major clubs from the continents and that the PVL will take over the team’s participation in South Korea in May next year .
“As president of the AVC, this year we launched the men’s and women’s AVC Champions League. It is the old club championship. I went to Japan and Korea the last two weeks because Japan is hosting the men’s Champions League and Korea is hosting the women’s Champions League. So these are the 12 best clubs in Asia,” he said. “The owners of the club received the magisip ng expenses, dahil PVL na ang expenses sa financing. “They are allowed to bring two foreign players.”
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Suzara is delighted with the continued growth of the PVL with foreign coaches such as Japanese Taka Minowa of Akari, Koji Tsuzurabara of Petro Gazz, Italian Nxled coach Ettore Guidetti imparting their knowledge to PVL players and competing local coaches.
