Someone owes volley group $80k, but who?

As the game of volleyball in the country tidied itself up with a new governing body fully recognized by the international federation, something, as the old association claims, has been swept under the rug: An $80,000 reimbursement.

Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas (LVPI) gave way for the creation of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) last year, which almost instantaneously obtained the FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) approval.

But the LVPI, composed of an entirely different group of officials, is going out of its way to remind the FIVB that it coughed up that amount to pay the money owed by yet another previous volleyball body.

Now the bigger question is whether it’s due from the FIVB itself or from the PNVF led by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

“This is part of the conditions they (FIVB) imposed on us to help revive Philippine volleyball,” said LVPI president Joey Romasanta, whose LVPI was only given conditional membership by the FIVB despite running volleyball affairs for five years.

The LVPI is demanding the FIVB to give its money back. But Romasanta himself admitted that it won’t be that simple.In a May 4 letter to FIVB director general Fabio Azevedo, LVPI said they will not hesitate to take the FIVB to court over this.

“We shall be forced to take the unfortunate route of seeking appropriate judicial intervention to address our quest for justice and financial restitution,” said the LVPI letter.

But since the FIVB is not covered by the local judicial system, there is no telling if the giant sporting body would even reply to the demand letter.

“FIVB is a huge, rich sporting body and we remain confident they will adhere to justice and fair play,” said Romasanta.

Suzara, who is FIVB committee member on marketing and development, said he’s got “no idea” if the FIVB would ever reimburse the LVPI payment.“We are a new federation, PNVF has nothing to do with LVPI,” said Suzara.

The PNVF has held tryouts for the national squads for the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games last week in Subic.