THE Philippine National Volleyball Federation held a virtual meeting Saturday night on the latest developments regarding the launch of the PNVF Champions League men’s competition.
PNVF President Ramon “Tats” Suzara chaired the meeting, with Secretary General Don Caringal, Vice President Dr. Arnel Hajan, and Board Member Carmela Gamboa, who is also the federation’s Events Council Chairperson, also in attendance.
Representatives from invited Metro Manila clubs Cignal HD, Go for Gold-Air Force, Navy, Instituto Estetico Manila and PLDT, as well as from one team from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao also attended the one-and-a-half hour Zoom meeting.
The first national league owned by the PNVF, the Champions League aims to bring together all the volleyball stakeholders through a high level of play at the club level.
“It is also one of the PNVF’s 10-point agendas which is to serve Filipino families with entertainment through volleyball and to make volleyball a widely played sport by elevating it through high-performance competition,” said Suzara.
Among the Champions League’s objectives are to strengthen and sustain the country’s national team program through an alternate yet equally strong platform, as well as to help initiate the return to men’s volleyball in the local sports scene.
The men’s tournament, which will be held in a bubble set-up on September 19-26, will feature a total of eight teams playing in as many as 24 matches that will be spread over seven days.
The PNVF is looking for the Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena in Laoag City, or the Bren Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga as its playing venue.
In the preliminary round, the eight clubs will be divided into two pools of four teams playing in a round-robin format. At the end of pool play, the teams will be ranked and will advance to the quarterfinals playing a cross-over single elimination as follows:
• 1A vs 4B
• 1B vs 4A
• 2A vs 3B
• 2B vs 3A
The quarterfinals winners will advance to the semifinals, while the losing clubs will play in the classification round:
1st-4th semifinals
• Winner of (1A vs 4B) vs Winner (2B vs 3A)
• Winner of (1B vs 4A) vs Winner of (2A vs 3B)
5th-8th semifinals
• Loser of (1A vs 4B) vs Loser of (2B vs 3A)
• Loser of (1B vs 4A) vs Loser of (2A vs 3B)
The semifinals winners will advance to the gold medal match, while the losing teams will play for the bronze.
The two winning clubs in the first stage of the classification phase will battle in the 5th-6th place match, while the losing teams will play in the 7th-8th place match.
Deadline for the submission of the 20-player roster is on September 1.