Volleyball League finally becomes a reality in Pakistan

The long-awaited dream of national volleyballers is set to be realized as Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) has streamlined things to hold Volleyball League after the ICC Champions Trophy in March.

The six-team event, which will be conducted through the Trans Group, will be the first-ever to be organized by Pakistan. The volleyball authorities in the country had been making concerted efforts during the last few years to hold the event but they were unable to implement their plans due to various issues, mostly financial.

And now the things have been settled and the league is going to be a reality.

“Yes, the league is confirmed now,” a senior official of Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) told Nukta in a detailed chat.

“It will be held in March after the Champions Trophy,” the official said.

The teams will be in the name of six cities including Lahore, Sialkot, Quetta, Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi.

The franchise-based event will be formally launched on January 9 at Lahore.

The PVF has signed a ten-year agreement with Trans Group and the latter will be responsible to conduct the event for a decade.

As per agreement, according to the official, there will be fifty percent profit and loss for both the PVF and Trans Group during the entire enterprise.

Foreign participation

There will be two foreign players in each franchise and coaching staff will also be mostly from offshore.

There will be two players in the platinum category, four each in the gold and silver categories and two will be emerging. If two foreigners are included then the ultimate team strength will swell to 14.

The value of the local players in the platinum category will be around Rs 1 million, the gold category players will get around Rs 800,000 with the players in the silver category to earn up to Rs 600,000. The same value will also be kept for the emerging category.

The foreign players will be paid in dollars as per their quality and categories.

Islamabad’s Liaquat Gymnasium will be the venue for the league.

“We have chosen Liaquat Gymnasium as it will be able to give ample space to fans to enjoy the matches. We don’t have any such spacious hall in the rest of Pakistan,” the official said.

The PVF has also chosen March as the event month because it wants to ensure its six players, who are playing in various offshore leagues, also feature in it.

“We have locked the timeframe from March 9-26. There can be slight changes for a week or ten days in the schedule depending on the feasibility,” the official said.

“It will be an event of maximum 15 to 20 days. It will be held on double league basis and then the final four teams will be engaged in the qualifiers and eliminators as is the formula for the Pakistan Super League (PSL),” the official said.

“It will help young players to get opportunity to play with the quality stuff both local and offshore and it will also provide an opportunity to the local fans to witness the game which they love,” the official said.

“A couple of dozen coaches will also get an opportunity to work in what could be a gripping event.” The official said.

Volleyball in Pakistan is on the rise and lack of its own professional league was a big vacuum. The league will provide youngsters to get exposure which will also pave way for their career growth in the long run.

Volleyball has a huge fan-base in Pakistan and it would be interesting to see how this league will go.

Besides cricket, which has its own PSL for around a decade now, there was no league in any other sport discipline in Pakistan.

And it would be a great breakthrough. A few years ago, Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) held its first-ever Super Kabaddi League (SKL) but it failed to repeat it and the federation is now making effort to resume it with a different name.

Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) once had made its efforts to launch its own league but it also failed.