The Champions League for men’s and women’s teams is scheduled for November. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Volleyball Federation is announced that it is launching the Champions League, a national competition for both the men’s and women’s teams, this November.
The tournament is scheduled for November 13 to 19 for the women’s league and November 20 to 26 for the men’s side, based on the recommendation of the CL Working Group said PNVF President Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
A total of eight teams will clash per division, playing as many as 24 matches.
The PNVF is looking at Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena in Laoag City, Claro M. Recto Events Center in Lipa City or Tagaytay City as potential sites for the CL which would be housed in a semi-bubble environment.
The eight teams will be broken into two groups, A and B, with the four teams competing in a round-robin format in the preliminaries which would determine their rank in terms of win-loss records.
Once the seeds are finalized, the teams will play each other in a cross-over format with the top team in one group taking on the bottom club in the other pool.
The second-best teams will then place the third-ranked clubs from across the groups.
Though there will be teams that won’t advance to the medal matches, they would still place for the final qualification.
Teams will have until October 20 to submit their 20-player rosters.
Representatives from Metro Manila clubs Cignal HD, Black Mamba-Army, Sta. Lucia, Chery Tiggo, PetroGazz and F2 Logistics attended the PNVF’s virtual meeting as well as members of provincial teams from Baguio City and Iligan City were present.
Also in the meeting are PNVF officials Secretary General Don Caringal, Vice President Dr. Arnel Hajan and Board Members Charo Soriano, Carmela Gamboa and Yul Benosa and Technical and Coaching Commission Chair coach Jerry Yee.
The Champions League, which is owned by the national federation according to Suzara, aims to bring all volleyball stakeholders to the highest level of club competition.
“It is also one of the PNVF’s 10-point agendas which is to serve Filipino families with entertainment through volleyball and to make volleyball a widely played sport by elevating it through high-performance competition,” said Suzara in a press release.