THE Philippines has officially submitted its bid to the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) to host the 2025 women’s indoor world championships, Philippines National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Ramon “Tats” Suzara announced on Sunday.
“The PNVF would like to officially announce that we have submitted a bid to host the women’s world championship in 2025,” Suzara told a press conference during a break in the Volleyball Nations League Week 3 men’s tournament on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The FIVB invited Poland to discuss on the bid process for the world championship during the VNL finals in Gdansk, Poland, next week.
“We’ll be able to get a clearer picture of our intention to bid, and win, in that meeting,” said Suzara, who added that Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Vietnam are also interested as hosts.
Hosting the women’s worlds, according to Suzara, would mean that the country would be privileged to field its national team in the biennial championship whose participation has been increased by eight countries to 32 teams in 2025.
“If we are hosts, that means we’ll be in the women’s world championship for the first time since 1975, the last time we had a team in the prestigious tournament in Mexico,” he said.
Suzara said he intends to apply the same formula of co-hosting that’s been granted the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas in hosting the FIBA 2023 World Cup in August.
“Just like in the FIBA World Cup, we intend to host 16 of the qualifiers with the crucial phases and the finals scheduled for the Philippines,” he said.