Stepping Into the Int'l Arena: The Challenge for PHI

Stepping Into the Int'l Arena: The Challenge for PHI

May 27, 2015 9:06 AM

Note: This will mainly focus on Senior Womens events in the Asian perspective (there are other continental events like European Clubs/Champs / Pan-Am League etc. which we won't talk about since we want to focus on PH POV).

We will try to illustrate and explain the different international volleyball competitions. Now that the Philippines is getting its foot back into the international scene, maybe it’s good that we look at the big picture and draw out some plan on how to climb our way to the top (and stay there).

You think UAAP+PSL(+U23+AVC+SEAG) is too much? Wait 'til you realize the magnitude and scope of international volleyball. The best way to make a splash back into the international scene is to join as many competitions as we can. Why? Because joining the different competitions allow us to accumulate points for rankings (more on that below). More importantly, if we want to improve, we have to get as much experience as possible.

This is the basic outline of the different international competitions that the Philippines will look into (there are other events but we focused on the major ones):

erratum: AVC Seniors - no points for 2017 edition!

Perennial competitors like Japan, China, Thailand, and Korea have been sending athletes to these competitions on a regular basis. Some countries may decide to skip some events but that is to prepare for other (more important) leagues, but mostly they send various teams to deal with all the competitions (Srs Team A to WGP and Srs Team B to another event) or most of the time, they go back-to-back (e.g. after their 3rd place finish in this year's AVC, Thailand's team will head straight to Singapore for the SEA Games, and also look at how Japan has distributed their volleyball pool into the different international competitions). These countries know the value of each league and its corresponding points in the world rankings (*tactics*). Moreover, these countries can host big events not only continental but also international. If you notice, Japan hosts main FIVB events almost every year. This is not only beneficial to their relationship with the FIVB but hosting an event automatically gives them a slot in the competition. (e.g. FIVB World Grand Prix has different legs, but if you host the Final Leg, you're already in the final 6. Coincidentally, this is Japan's highest rank in Grand Prix. See, you can achieve more if you host more). That is why the PHI hosting of the AVC U23 Women's was a big deal for the LVPI -- it cemented the idea that the Philippines was indeed determined to get back into the international volleyball scene.

Continental Leagues

AVC Seniors Championships has the biggest weight in terms of points (and importance) in Asia -- this is where FIVB determines the top seeds in Asia+Oceania. It is also the basis for qualifications for most of the international (intercontinental) events that FIVB organizes. For example, the top two teams for this year's AVC tourney will qualify for the 2015 FIVB World Cup, which in turn is a direct qualification tournament for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Other competitions in Asia include the annual AVC Club Championships, where we joined last year bannered by PLDT Home TVolution (as far as we know, the Petron Blaze Spikers will be the representatives of the Philippines this year as they won the 2015 PSL AFC; no points); the Asian Games, deemed as the Asian-equivalent of the Olympics (no points); and the Southeast Asian Games which the country will be participating in 2 weeks (no points).

Big hoopla is being made by the PH government regarding the SEA Games and we understand why: this is the international multi-sport competition where the country will have the highest chance of scoring medals (with only the SEA countries as competition). For volleyball, this is just a regional tournament with no weight for other tournaments -- it's an isolated sui generis event, with no qualifications for world tournaments (basketball has SEABA for FIBA, football has AFC for FIFA etc). We disagree to some extent with the decision of prioritizing the SEA Games volleyball tourney over the AVC Seniors championships because they don't have any bearing on the world rankings or even qualifications for other international leagues that help us with our chances in the Olympics. However, we understand that the Philippine national volleyball team is just (re)starting, and joining as many competitions as we can would help gain experience and confidence to tackle other competitions. We just hoped they gave the same weight or importance to AVC as well, that's all :)

ETA 2017/07/18: 2 years later, looks like we are looking at AVC Srs and SEA Games with the same weight since we will be joining both tourneys with THE SAME TEAM (YEY)! PROBLEM IS... (to be continued below).

International Tournaments

Aside from Olympics, which most of us think is the highest stage for volleyball (and other sports), there are other competitions with the same amount of importance, especially during non-Olympic years. The biggest of them is the FIVB World Championships held every four years. United States, the champion in last year's 2014 WCH, gained 100 points, giving them back the top spot in the world rankings with 345 points (Brazil in rank #2; they usually interchange). China placed second in the event, bumping them up to 3rd in the world rankings, stepping ahead of Japan, the previous world number 3.

World ranks as of October 2014 are here. The Philippines is currently at rank #63 (along with four other countries, like Hong Kong and Greece), with just 9 points. Ranks are important because they determine seedings in the international tourneys. As we discussed before, FIVB/AVC usually uses the serpentine system in determining pools for the various competitions.

As of this May 2015, we believe that PHI still has 9 points, because we finished 12th in the AVC this year (same as last 2013, which gives us 3 points) and the WCH qualifications last year gave us 6 points. We have not qualified for other tournaments for us to gain more points. Note that points are cumulative but they expire - this means the team is only as good as their last performance.

ETA 2017/07/18: as of July 2017, we are down to 6 points to rank #79, but come 2018, it will get worse because... (to be continued below).

Other FIVB events are the following:

• FIVB World Cup (WC), an event held every four years, which is a competition between the top countries per continent, determined by the respective continental championships (in our case, its the AVC Seniors Championships). This is an international qualification tournament for the Olympics. It is always held in Japan (therefore, Japan is always qualified for the competition as they are the hosts).
• FIVB World Grand Prix (WGP), the main annual FIVB event, which takes around 5 weeks to finish and rotates cities/countries.
• FIVB World Grand Champions Cup (WGCC), another quadrennial event that is staged a year after the Olympics. Interestingly, this FIVB event bears no points for the participants -- it is staged so that there will be no year without an FIVB international tournament. As with the WC, WGCC is always held in Japan.
• FIVB Club World Championships (CWC), the international competition for the various continental club champions. Qualifications for this include topping the AVC Club Championships. There are no points granted for this.

Olympic Games

It is never easy to qualify for the Olympics. There are Olympic qualifiers all over the world and to be able to play in that stage is already a once-in-a-lifetime achievement (note however that most volleyball Olympians were able to play in more than one Olympics; that's how hard it is to enter the top ranks of volleyball). Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 are the next Olympics which volleyball fans consider as two of the better Olympics hosts for the sport, as both Brazil and Japan are very big in volleyball. The Olympics is considered the culmination of all the efforts in joining international tourneys -- you join them because you want to end up playing in the Olympics.

How do we get there?

We can start by sending athletes to various events but it is also important to be proactive and host. Basically, we just need to get off our butts and participate, as much as possible.

However, participation is dependent upon the availability of the participants -- top caliber countries know the international schedule very well. In fact, they schedule around it: the Volleyball Thailand League is held every November to March, while Japan's V.Premiere League starts around the last quarter of the year and finishes around April, and Korea's V-League is also around the same time. If you notice in the timeline above, these are scheduled before/after the main international tourneys. In our case, PSL and SVL should also be scheduled around these, and more importantly they shouldn't overlap. We know that our players want to play for the country and they are being hindered by schedule mishaps; we hope this would end.

It would be a very very very long road for the Philippines. However, as with all things, we do what we can -- the Philippines has to do its best to continue the momentum that we had in U23. After all, if we want to go back to the top, we have to start somewhere. And this is the right time -- now.

The next big thing that the Philippines should target would be the 2018 FIVB World Championships, because: 1) qualifications for this are not dependent on rankings-- they have their own qualification events/system, and 2) they have the biggest points distributions even in qualifying tournaments. This will also expose us to the playing styles of the other countries in the world, and furthermore, if the Olympics is what we are after, we can pattern progress to WCH, which should be pretty much the same. We hope that PHI would try to create the step towards this.

ETA 2017/07/18: ... the Philippines has decided not to participate in the 2018 World Championship Qualifiers (the Asian qualifiers will be in September 2017). Because of this, the existing 6 points in world rankings of the Philippines will be down to 0 pts next year due to non-participation, further sliding down our ranking from #79 to #115 (dead last). No words can describe how disappointed and frustrated we are. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢