PVF mulls holding international event ahead of South Asian Games

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) is planning to organise an international event in the second half of 2022 in an effort to raise a competitive outfit for the 14th South Asian Games to be hosted by the country in March 2023.

A top PVF official has said that hosting of international tournaments will be one of the major events of the hectic scheduled planned by the federation for the year 2022.

Some leading Asian teams will be invited to compete in the tournament that could be a six-nation event.

“Due to multiple reasons including Covid-19 outbreak, we have not been able to organise international events all these years. Before that, organising international event had been our normal routine. The PVF used to organise international events every alternate year in the nineties and early months of 2000. We are planning to continue with the same practice starting with the international event within a year’s time,” he said.

The immediate challenge the federation is facing is to organise the first ever volleyball franchise league on the pattern of cricket league just after Ramazan.

“Yes, the preparation for the inaugural league is well on the cards. I am going to hold some important meetings with the sponsors in the first half of January to finalise the roadmap. We are planning to hold the league at the two venues — Sialkot and then the next ten days in Islamabad. The PVF has some exciting plans for the league and within next couple of months, the federation will finalise all the details on the league. There is not a single but a host of sponsors showing keen interest in supporting the venue,” the official said.

“We have some exciting plans for the league. Those who have any doubts must have seen the National Championship live on Geo TV. The championship has injected fresh interest in the game of volleyball. We want to cash the interest of youth and would make all-out efforts to make volleyball one of the top two sports in the country. We are well on our way to achieve that target.”

The PVF with help of sponsors plans to invest around Rs100 million in the first edition of the league that would include a sum of Rs10 million for each of the six franchise teams to pick a few players from abroad.

“Some leading Asian players have already shown interest to be part of the first ever volleyball league in Pakistan. It is just a matter of time now as we are all set to host it after coming to Ramazan. Instead of making it a one-month league, we have decided to make the inaugural edition a 20-day event,” PVF chairman Ch Yaqoob said in his recent interview with ‘The News’.