Philippine volleyball stakeholders urged to meet to resolve leadership crisis

MANILA, Philippines — The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) reiterated its intent of resolving the issue concerning Philippine volleyball by asking the stakeholders concerned to convene in a meeting next month. 

FIVB general director Fabio Azevedo wrote Sports Vision president Ricky Palou, whose group organizes the Premier Volleyball League, a one-page letter Thursday signifying its intent of resolving the long-running dispute in said sport.

“The FIVB would like to emphasize that it shares the concerns of volleyball stakeholders in the Philippines regarding the current state of the national volleyball federation there,” Azevedo told Palou, who wrote the FIVB on December 17 last year.

“The FIVB wishes to resolve this issue as soon as possible so that the relevant stakeholders can focus on growing the sport of volleyball in the Philippines, which the FIVB believes has great potential for the future,” he added.

The FIVB had actually set up a meeting with “provisionally-affiliated” Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVPI) and the “suspended” Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) this month but was moved to next month.

Again, Azevedo said it would send an FIVB delegation to meet up with the local officials to sort everything out.

“After the 2018 FIVB World Congress, the FIVB discussed this issue with the PVF, LVPI, the Philippine NOC (Philippine Olympic Committee) and the Ministry of Sport (Philippine Sports Commission),” he said.

Azevedo said he would go himself along with Jizhong Wei, Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, Stephen Bock and Jaime Lamboy to find a resolution to the impasse.

LVPI president Joey Romasanta has long said he had welcomed the move and showed his readiness to provide documents and meet the requirements to gain full membership status.

Azevedo said the earlier letter that the status of the LVPI and PVF remain the same since 2015 when the FIVB board of administration provisionally recognized the LVPI on the basis of its recognition from the POC as the country’s sole governing body in the sport.

There were separate proposals to expel the PVF and the LVPI but the FIVB World Congress refused to give its nod.

In the end, Azevedo said the PVF “would still be suspended” and the LVPI “would be provisionally accepted.”