Debt-ridden PVF faces suspension

Volleyball, a once dormant sport turned into a lively game following a series of Shakey’s V-League tournaments the last three years, could hit rock bottom again.

Tony Boy Liao, chairman of the beach volley council of the Asian Volleyball Confederation, said the Philippine Volleyball Federation is in danger of being suspended if it fails to pay its arrears to the FIVB, the world governing body of the sport.

Liao said RP owes FIVB a total amount of $100,000, or a whopping P5 million, incurred as dues for hosting the World Grand Prix twice, the first in 2003 and the other in 2004.

A possible suspension in all FIVB-sanctioned events like the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games looms for RP if the PVF fails to pay the amount before the end of the year.

"If we can’t pay the FIVB what we owe them, then a suspension is definite," said Liao, who left yesterday for Doha, Qatar to test the beach volley venue of the 15th Asian Games slated Dec. 5-15. The PVF, headed by Roger Banzuela, is set to hold an election on Friday.

Liao said that the PVF has been given time to at least come up with a payment scheme for over a year now but no such plan has even been done by the local body.

"The FIVB has been writing and reminding us of our debts, but it seems the PVF just kept on ignoring it," said Liao. "If we don’t have the money, at least we should tell them we’ll pay it in installment, not ignore it."

Volleyball’s best showing in the Asian Games was a silver medal finish in the 1962 edition held in Jakarta, Indonesia and was on a decline after that.

In the SEA Games, RP won the gold in 1993 in Singapore on a team built around Thelma Barina, a silver in 1995 in

Kuala Lumpur and a bronze in 1997 in Jakarta, 2001 in

Kuala Lumpur and 2003 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In last year’s Manila edition, the country failed to snare a medal in indoor volleyball but got its first medal in beach volley courtesy of a bronze by the Fil-Am pair of Heidi Ilustre and Diane Pascua.

Ilustre and Pascua, thanks to a pair of strong

finishes in tournaments in Korea and Hong Kong, are bidding to snare a medal in the Doha Games.