For sports fans, the relaxation
of restrictions and the implementation of reasonable health and safety
protocols to enable the resumption of league-based sporting events cannot come
soon enough. And it is not only professional basketball with the PBA that the
country is waiting for. There is also a significant audience for pro women’s volleyball
as well. It is not a surprise considering many players here would already have
built a following from televised collegiate play. The Philippine Super Liga
(PSL) is just as antsy towards starting play as the basketball aces, so news
that they might restart later this year is welcome news for everybody.
The Philippine Star would have it that the country’s health and
gaming commissions have just given the go-ahead to the Philippine Super Liga to
prepare for renewed game practice for its constituent teams starting next month
in August. This is necessary to allow the league to have plenty of time to
condition its players in the hope of holding at least one PSL conference in the
2020 season, seeing as the year has been decimated sporting-wise by the COVID-19
pandemic. They thus join the PBA and the PFL as the “big three” pro-sports
leagues with COVID-safety practice rules officially finalized.
According to Ariel Paredes, Super
Liga operations director, league authorities have met with the Philippine
Sports Commission (PSC), Games and Amusement Board (GAB) and the Department of
Health (DOH) to hash out implementing rules in health and safety protocols to
enable their volleyball teams to practice and do drills. Now all that is left
is for the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) overseeing COVID response to allow
their planned start of practice for August. If given the green-light, there
would be enough time to get ready for a 2020 season All-Filipino Conference
(AFC) for PSL contention.
“As we planned to organized the
2020 AFC, if the government will allow it. We’re now studying how to conduct
competition,” explains Paredes concerning the discussion with the DOH and other
officials. “Mainly, we must have one competition hall with very effected health
and safety protocols with low risk on COVID.” For the AFC competition, the
Super Liga proposes selecting one host venue in a city with a low COVID-19
infection rate, where all conference games will be played behind closed doors
without audiences. Similar formats have been done for their 2020 Grand Prix
Conference earlier this year before being ultimately canceled by the lockdowns.
The reason for the possible
single PSL conference late this year being All-Filipino is that the league had
let its import players depart following the cancellation of the GPC when the
COVID-19 pandemic got serious.
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