AVC president Tats Suzara provides a glimpse into a loaded schedule of international volleyball tournaments for the Philippines and the rest of Asia.
The Philippines’ international hosting duties won’t stop just yet following the AVC Champions League this April and the FIVB Men’s World Championships in September this year.
No less than concurrent Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) president Ramon “Tats” Suzara confirmed the country’s two-year hosting of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Women’s Championship from 2026 to 2027.
This serves as the Philippines’ hosting of the VNL Women’s Championship since 2022, with games hopefully being played at the soon-to-rise SM Seaside Arena in Cebu this time around.
“As agreed with SM and Hans Sy, we are bringing VNL to Cebu, the VNL Women’s for 2026 and 2027,” Suzara said in a press conference that also recognized the PVL and Sports Vision’s hosting of the 2025 AVC Champions League on Tuesday at the Philsports Arena.
“Punta tayo lahat sa Cebu, kasi they are building a new MOA Arena in Cebu, and the fans in Cebu are really crazy, so they’re very hungry [for volleyball],” added Suzara, who hails from Cebu himself.
Prior to the Philippines VNL hosting, though, the AVC under Suzara is expected to have a full plate of tournaments for the rest of 2025, with a total of seven world championships set to be played across Asian countries for the rest of the year.
Topping this list will be the FIVB Women’s World Championship to be held from August 22 to September 7 in Thailand, and the Men’s World Championship from September 12 to 28 across Manila.
The other world championships will be as follows: The FIVB Boys’ Under-19 World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the FIVB Women’s World Under-21 Championships in Surabaya, Indonesia, the FIVB Men’s Under-21 World Championships in Jiangmen, China, and the Men’s and Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide, Australia.
What about the AVC Champions League?
Meanwhile, Suzara believes that the AVC Champions League has been a success so far, especially with the exposure that it has provided to the Philippines’ Creamline Cool Smashers, Petro Gazz Angels, and PLDT High Speed Hitters.
The concurrent PNVF and AVC president also pointed out how this year’s hosting duties are “history in the making”, especially with the AVC’s goal to match up with stronger regions such as Europe.
“We’re trying to catch up with Europe, because the [CEV] Champions League in Europe is really very strong, and there is no limit of foreign players in Europe,” Suzara explained. “[In the AVC Champions League], the original competition regulations for the Women’s Club Championship was only two foreign players, and they don’t play at the same time.”
“So we changed the rule [for this year]. Teams can have three foreign players, and they can all play at the same time, so the teams are really much stronger now.”
Apart from relaxing the rules toward imports, the 2025 AVC Champions League also saw the participation of Jordan through Al Naser, which is another historic first, according to the AVC chief.
Al Naser was slotted in Pool A along with Creamline in the one-week meet, and maximized their import quota by tapping Brazil’s Natiele Marquez, Paula Klein, and Isabela Da Silveira to boost their lineup.
“We’ve never had any participation from any Middle Eastern countries, and it’s always Qatar. But now, we were able to push the president, her royal highness Princess Ayah Bint Faisal of Jordan, to participate.”
Naturally, the next step is to raise the stakes for the Champions League, which may already include a tougher qualification process and larger playing field for next year’s staging.
“The qualifications for next year because more teams want to participate. We want to limit it to 12 teams, but I think next year, we have to study within AVC, with the FIVB and Volleyball World on how to qualify for the Champions League.”
Banner images courtesy of the Premier Volleyball League.