Stay or go home: PNVF to decide on De Brito’s contract

Will Jorge Edson Souza de Brito get a contract extension as the Philippine women’s volleyball head coach?

The Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) is set to decide on the matter when the de Brito-led national team returns to the country after the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup for Women in Indonesia slated from June 18 to 25.

That is according to PNVF Chairman for National Team Department Tony Boy Liao.

“We’re going to have a meeting regarding his [de Brito] contract extension when the national team returns after the AVC Challenge Cup,” Liao told The Manila Times.

De Brito’s two-year contract is set to expire this July.

Jorge Edson Souza de Brito PVL PHOTO 

Granting the PNVF request to have a Brazilian coach for the women’s volleyball national team, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) appointed de Brito, 56, to the national team in May 2021 under its Coach Support for Development of National Teams, which ‘main goal is to improve the performance of national teams around the world by providing an expert coach along with the necessary volleyball equipment’.

De Brito, who won an Olympic gold with the Brazilian men’s national team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona as a player and another one as part of the Brazilian women’s team coaching staff in the 2008 Games in Beijing, arrived in the Philippines in July 2021 to start his two-year tenure with the national team.

De Brito’s first foray with the national team was when he coached the Rebisco Philippine team in the 2021 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship in Thailand.

The former middle blocker went on to head coach the national women’s volleyball teams in the 2022 and 2023 Southeast Asian Games, which saw the Philippine team miss the podium, finishing fourth in both editions.

In the 2023 Phnom Penh Games last May, De Brito drew backlash from volleyball fans online as the national team failed to make the podium for the second straight time under his watch as well as for giving team captain Alyssa Valdez little action on the court.

Fans, especially on Twitter, went as far as demanding the ouster of de Brito, who also coaches the Akari Chargers in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL).