Fans’ clamor for a one-off tournament featuring teams from the Premier Volleyball League and clubs from Philippine Superliga remains a pipe dream.
This as the PVL has turned professional leaving the PSL in limbo. Limbo as both the Games and Amusements Board and the Philippine Sports Commission has eliminated the semi-professional classification of leagues.
“At this point in time, I don’t think that that is going to happen,” said PVL President Ricky Palou during Tuesday’s edition of the PSA Forum, which is powered by Smart and presented by San Miguel Corporation, Go For Gold PH, MILO Philippines, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant, and PAGCOR with Upstream Media as the official webcast partner.
In late 2019, there were talks between both leagues of holding a special tournament called the Unity Cup. Helping facilitate the meetings was Raffy Villavicencio, owner of the Filoil Flying V Centre.
The format was supposed to be the top four teams in the PVL’s Open Conference and PSL’s All-Filipino Conference playing in either a round-robin or a sudden death tournament.
But according to sources closely monitoring the situation, when the PVL was about to sign on the dotted line, the PSL suddenly changed the terms, wanting all the teams to compete in it.
It meant that PVL’s Creamline, Petro Gazz, Perlas Spikers, Motolite, Air Force, Army, Choco Mucho, and Bali Pure will all play against F2 Logistics, Petron, Sta. Lucia, Cignal, Cherry Tiggo, Marinerang Pilipina, Generika-Ayala, and PLDT of the PSL.
It proved to be the deal-breaker.
“What we wanted was we have the four top teams compete in a tournament but the other side wanted all teams from both leagues to participate. We felt like this was going to be too long. That’s sixteen teams playing in a round-robin. That’s going to take three to four months to finish if we play thrice a week,” affirmed Palou.
“We never came into an agreement for this.”
Moreover, the PSL has said that it won’t go pro in the foreseeable future.
“At this point in time, it’s completely out of the picture,” lamented Palou.
