PVL gets commitment from 3 new teams

NEW Premier Volleyball League (PVL) teams Gerflor, Farm Fresh and Foton have committed to stay in the league on a long term basis.

The three teams, in fact, have already committed to play at least three years in the PVL starting with the 2023 Invitational Conference, according to Sports Vision and PVL president Ricky Palou.

Chery Tiggo’s Shaya Adorador (now with Foton Tornadoes) attacks against two Akari defenders. PVL PHOTO 

“We don’t want teams to come here and play in this conference and then move out and then come again later,” said Palou in Noli Eala’s Power and Play program on Saturday, June 17.

“So, we got their commitment that they’ll play in all conferences for at least the next three years.”

With the addition of Geflor, Farm Fresh and Foton, the number of PVL teams increased from eight to 11. Those 11 teams will be joined by two guest teams in the Invitational Conference which kicks off on June 27.

“Right now, we’ve got confirmation from Japan, still waiting for confirmation from one of the other teams. We said the first two that confirm are the first two that we will formally invite,” he added.

“They’re club teams, more or less on the professional side. For Hong Kong, we asked them if they could send their national team, so we’ll see what happens. These clubs are not collegiate teams, they’re not pick-up teams. Competition-wise it should be better.”

Palou stressed that having these foreign club teams join the PVL should bode well for the local teams and players in the league.

“We’d like our local players to get experience playing foreign teams. Hopefully, our teams will learn from them. It’s more of our learning from them rather than learning from us,” added Palou, who had Taiwan club KingWhale join last year’s Invitational Conference where it placed second to Creamline.

Kobe Shinwa Women’s University was also supposed to join last year but backed out at the last minute due to some of its players testing positive for Covid-19.