Chery Tiggo risks missing its Alas Pilipinas players

Eya Laure (left) and Jennifer Nierva (middle) were teammates in the bronze-winning Alas Pilipinas squad in the AVC Challenge Cup, alongside La Salle star Angel Canino. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Chery Tiggo risks missing stars Eya Laure and Jennifer Nierva in the PVL Reinforced Conference if both players are not released to the national pool, league president Ricky Palou warned on Monday night at the sidelines of the inaugural Rookie Draft.

“If the team chooses not to allow their players to play [with the national team], on our part, we have an agreement with the PNVF (Philippine National Volleyball Federation) that they will also not be allowed to play in the Reinforced Conference,” Palou told reporters after the Draft.

The potential ban represents the strongest move yet by an organization on clubs refusing to allow their players to suit up for national duty, a sanction never applied in recent history in local pro leagues.

Chery Tiggo Aaron Velez has told reporters that Chery Tiggo is maintaining status quo on both players, depending on negotiations with the league, the federation and the Crossovers’ management.

But there might be no need for negotiations based on agreements between the PVL and the PNVF. Those agreements, Palou explained, is tethered to guidelines by the sport’s international governing body (FIVB) on national team and club commitments.

“We’re trying to explain to [Chery] that there’s an FIVB regulation that if the national federation chooses your players to go to the national team, you’re supposed to [release] those players [to] the national team,” Palou said. “So we’re talking things out and I think there’s a misunderstanding somewhere.

We’re trying to explain [the details] to them; we’re still talking. We [need] time to explain to them what this whole thing [is about] and what our agreements are with the PNVF.”

Until Aug. 11

National team players, Palou said, are mandated to remain with the pool until Aug. 11. The PVL Reinforced Conference starts on July 16.

Laure and Nierva, who were the key members of Alas’ bronze medal run in the AVC Challenge Cup, stopped attending practices after that tournament and also skipped the FIVB Women’s Volleyball Challenger Cup last week after failing to get a clearance from their mother club to play for the flag.

But Palou is hopeful the two will be reinstated once the wrinkles are ironed out.

“Even if they didn’t play in the Challenger Cup, they are still [part of] the pool so there are at least two tournaments for the national team and I think [the team] is also going to Japan to train for two or three weeks,” Palou said.

“Hopefully they’ll be allowed to join the training in Japan and the two or three other tournaments. We’ll find out more [about the status of Laure and Nierva] in the next two weeks.” INQ