PVL opts for second All-Filipino to close out season

The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is looking at the possibility of playing with a 12-team roster for its last conference of the season, which will be a second All-Filipino in the middle of October.

“There are feelers but nothing is final yet,” Ricky Palou, the PVL president, said when asked of the number of teams seeing action as inquiries have come pouring in. In an earlier interview with the Inquirer, the PVL boss had said that 12 is the “ideal maximum number for me.”

“We are still trying to find out who [will be the 12th team],” Palou said. “It will all depend on their long-term plans. Our condition for the teams who want to join is they’re supposed to stay with us for the long term.

“What we want is when you come in, you play for years, you stay with us for years, you play in all conferences.”

Having a second All-Filipino Conference (AFC) was forced on the league after it failed to get a clearance from the world-governing FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) to tap import as Petro Gazz will have to wait until late next year to defend its title. The Angels swept Cignal in last season’s finals with Lyndsay Van Der Wilde leading the way.

Instead, Creamline, which lost in a knockout title game to Kurashiki of Japan in the Invitational Conference last Sunday, will have the chance to win another AFC using the same core led by Tots Carlos and the comebacking Alyssa Valdez.

“According to the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Mr. [Tats] Suzara, the FIVB is blocking our request for ITCs (International transfer certificates). So we’re going to proceed with it [third conference] but All-Filipino,” Palou told reporters.

Among PNVF’s recommendations is to refrain “from contracting foreign quest players requiring to undergo the ITC procedure for 2023.”