PVL’s freewheeling recruitment comes to halt by midyear

Ricky Palou: Putting things on a reasonable level. —PVL PHOTO

The Premier Volleyball League’s (PVL) plans on pushing for a more equal playing field is slowly taking shape as it eyes to fully implement major changes by midyear.

For the first time since the PVL became a professional league, it will be having a Rookie Draft that will pull the curtains down on direct hirings either from international talent or local collegiate standouts done by the teams to bolster their rosters.

“Come June, all new players will apply for the draft,” league commissioner Sherwin Malonzo said during the launch of the new season with the All-Filipino press conference in Pasig City on Wednesday. “That’s the transition from amateur or collegiate volleyball to pro. They have to pass through the draft.”

READ: PVL brings back round-robin semifinals

“[Our] target is [in the latter part of] June [but] I don’t want to give a specific date because we want the college tournaments to be finished before starting the drafting process,” Malonzo, who also wants to hold a rookie combine and lottery proceedings, added when asked about when the league will implement the changes.

Philippine National Volleyball Federation Champions League champions Petro Gazz was the most recent team to directly recruit a player after it signed Brooke van Sickle, who immediately showed her offensive prowess and glimpses of what she can do when the PVL unwraps Feb. 20.

Age requirement

The guidelines are still in the works with an age requirement for the local players still being the only prerequisite yet for amateurs who wish to enter the league.

“For the local players … the basic eligibility rule for you to qualify for the draft [is] to be at least 21 years old on the day of the drafting, regardless if you came from college, high school or out of school youth,” Malonzo said as they continue to come up with the details before presenting it to team managements.

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The PVL will also be looking to enforce a salary cap to ensure fair play and serve as a ceiling on how much the teams can offer as salaries to their players.

“The way things are going now, we feel that everything is getting out of hand,” league president Ricky Palou said. “At the end of the day, it will be the teams that will be having the difficulty in sustaining their own teams, right?

“We’d really like to put everything on a reasonable level. We are preparing some guidelines on what will be on the salary cap and we will present this to the teams,” he added. “Some may feel that our recommendation is too low or too high and then we’ll get the consensus on what to come up with on the final salary cap.”

Palou also revealed that they have required league newcomers to come up with a bond that will ensure that players will receive their salaries based on their contracts if a franchise decides to discontinue competing.

READ: PVL aligns calendar with FIVB schedule

“I would like to clarify that all the players of the teams that decided not to continue playing in the PVL, all the obligations of the teams have been paid so the players have all been compensated,” he said.

The upcoming All-Filipino Conference will bring back the one-minute technical timeouts on the eighth and 16th points as well as two regular timeouts that will last for half a minute.

Players can no longer talk to their coaches and must remain inside the court during video challenges. Teams have previously utilized their video challenges as another way to collect themselves during crucial sets.

During the semifinals, the top four teams will also compete in a single round robin format like in the preliminary round as opposed to the top squad battling the No. 4 team and No. 2 team facing the one in the third spot. There will be a playoff match for the second spot in the event of a tie.