GAB, PSC lay down law: PSL, PVL and MPBL are pro leagues

FILE PHOTO-PSL Grand Prix Opening. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Games and Amusements Board (GAB) Chair Abraham Mitra has settled a long-standing issue with the help of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

If you pay athletes to play, you’re a professional league. And a joint resolution between the GAB and the PSC is expected to affect the Philippine SuperLiga (PSL), Premier Volleyball League (PVL) and Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), which now have to secure professional licenses.

“If an athlete gets paid and does not play for the [national] flag, then he or she is a professional athlete,’’ Mitra said. Based on its mandate, the GAB will have to put those leagues, where participating athletes “play for pay’’ under its supervision.

The resolution’s first test will be from PSL, which has scheduled a beach volleyball tournament that will start on Nov. 26.

Under the GAB-PSC Joint Resolution No. 2020-01, professional sports or competitions refer to individual or team sports, games, contests, bouts and tournaments where the participating athletes are paid sums of money or other forms of compensation as salary or prizes.

The GAB is mandated to regulate and supervise all professional sports and games in the country pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 871 and Executive Order No. 120.

The Philippine Basketball Association, Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3, Philippine Football League, National Basketball League and the East Asia Super League are some of the leagues sanctioned by the GAB.

Athletes from these leagues are required to secure GAB licenses.

Players from the MPBL, PVL and PSL are also paid for their services but have eluded the “professional” tag by claiming that “their players only receive allowances and not salaries,’’ Mitra said.