Ramon “Tats” Suzara will head a new volleyball association that will be formed in the coming days as the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) has stepped into the picture and offered a solution seen as a win-win for everyone involved in the sport.
Volleyball stakeholders were present in a meeting with POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino as the sports body called for a Jan. 25 polls at East Ocean restaurant in Parañaque City to formalize the set of officers of the new NSA (national sport association) that will run affairs of the sport.“Volleyball is already unified at last and the true winner here is Philippine volleyball,” Tolentino said in a statement. “We will report this to the FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) and we’re going to invite them in the elections through video link.”
Four seats in the board of the new association will be allotted to the Larong Volleyball ng Pilipinas Inc. (LVPI), Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) and a new coalition which Suzara will head.
And under the same agreement, Suzara’s group will be given the positions of president and secretary general, while PVF will have representatives named chair and auditor.
LVPI will have the slots of vice president and treasurer with the 13th seat to be given to a representative of the POC.
“Those were the terms suggested by the POC and for the sake of Philippine volleyball, we agreed to it,” said Ricky Palou, the president of Premier Volleyball League (PVL).
Suzara has cut ties with Philippine SuperLiga (PSL), but still carries power having served for decades as marketing and development chief of Asian Volleyball Confederation.
Last month, the FIVB asked the POC to supervise an entirely new election for the local governing body, in time for its world congress on Feb. 5-7.
The development effectively invalidated the Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas which is composed of representatives of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, National Collegiate Athletic Association, PSL and PVL. Despite running the sport since 2015, it has failed to obtain full recognition from the FIVB. INQ