PVL puts premium on fairness with maiden Rookie Draft

MANILA, Philippines – The Premier Volleyball League is introducing a novel fair play recognition system to enhance its competition dynamics while reverting back to the previous technical timeout format in the All-Filipino Conference unfolding on February 20 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

The league is also gearing up for its inaugural Rookie Draft in the next conference in June.

A groundbreaking initiative includes the issuance of green cards to players who voluntarily acknowledge a block touch or a net touch, streamlining the adjudication process and minimizing the need for unnecessary video challenges.

League commissioner Sherwin Malonzo said the league will revert to the former eight and 16 technical timeouts, each lasting one minute, along with regular timeouts lasting 30 seconds. Players will now be required to remain on the court during video challenges, barring coaches from inter- acting with them during disputes.

“We're bringing back the 8 and 16 technical timeouts (1 minute each) and the regular timeouts (30 seconds),” said Malonzo. “Also, during the video challenge, players need to stay in the court, meaning coaches cannot talk to the players during the dispute,” he added.

While the rotation of courts remains unchanged, the league, organized by Sports Vision, is poised to make history by conducting its first-ever annual draft immediately following the All-Filipino Conference.

The draft order for the bottom four teams will be determined through a lottery, with the remaining teams likely to be allocated positions based on their standings in the season-opening conference.

Malonzo shared insights into the draft eligibility criteria, specifying that applicants must be at least 21 years old on the draft day. The league is still finalizing detailed regulations, which will be presented to member teams.

“We'll just create a formula based on that. We're also considering a lottery for the bottom four. So, not just because you're No. 12, you get the automatic first pick,” he said. “The basic eligibility rule for one to qualify for the draft is she has to be 21 years old on the day of the drafting.”

Meanwhile, the All-Filipino Conference will play a single round robin elims with the top four teams advancing to the semis, another round robin phase.

The top two squads will dispute the championship in a best-of-three series. In case of a tie for the second final slot, a playoff will be held. There will be no playoffs in the elims but ties will be resolved using the FIVB system of classification.