A major shake-up of Akari and Nxled in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is in the offing after the sister teams got the green light for a swap of players and coaches following a 'heated' vote from the league’s five-person management team.
Under the terms of the controversial swap, Akari mainstays Dindin Santiago-Manabat, Trisha Genesis, Bang Pineda and Roselle Baliton will trade places with Nxled aces Ivy Lacsina, Dani Ravena, Kamille Cal and Camille Victoria.
READ: All you need to know about the inaugural PVL Rookie Draft
A coaching swap is also set to be part of the shake-up, with Taka Minowa taking over Akari as Raffy Mosuela moves to Nxled.
PVL president Ricky Palou, however, vowed such blockbuster swaps between sister teams will be the last moving forward for a league that is set to institutionalize its rookie draft beginning on July 6.
Palou bared to SPIN.ph how he opposed the Akari-Nxled trade but was outnumbered in a ‘heated argument’ among members of the PVL management team, leading to a vote in favor of the second PVL sister-team transaction of 2024.
“There are mixed feelings. Personally, I was against it. But the PVL is ran by a management team of five. Just because I’m president, it doesn’t mean that what I say goes. We sit down, we discuss, we look at the pros and cons,” said Palou.
“But then, this happened with Akari and they’re saying now na wala pa kasi tayong rules na black and white. I said that’s beside the point, we already informed you. But they said they will contest that. They don’t have anything to show for that.
“It became a heated argument among us. So we went to a vote. I lost in that vote,” he added.
Prior to the 2024 PVL All-Filipino Conference in February, Choco Mucho hotshots Bea de Leon and Denden Lazaro-Revilla were shipped to sister team Creamline — one that led to a verbal pronouncement from the league restricting sister-team transactions.
“This issue, I was really against it. In fact, from the very beginning, I was saying we will not allow the transfers of some players from Choco Mucho to Creamline. We shouldn’t have allowed this anymore,” said Palou.
However, league insiders bared the Akari-Nxled move is aboveboard based on a 'technicality' which they declined to specify.
Palou on drafting and league parity
In the midst of eight-time champion Creamline’s longstanding title reign, Palou shared how he believes that parity is a core principle the league must uphold but one that still needs work.
“We feel there’s parity, right? Of course, the newer teams are behind. That’s why we’ve come up with this draft system and all that so that they’ll be able to pick better players and eventually improve their competitiveness against the teams that have been in the league for some time now,” Palou said.
In order to safeguard the league’s integrity and competitive balance, Palou takes pride in how the forthcoming PVL Rookie Draft will provide a systematic pipeline to level the playing field and eliminate unwarranted advantages for any team.
Among the key considerations Palou disclosed ahead of the inaugural draft involve contractual safety nets and barring conduits in sister-team trades.
“We will not allow sister teams to trade with each other. We will not allow ‘yung conduits, like (for example) they want this player, then force her to come to their sister team, then force them to their team. We won’t allow that.
“In fact, we’re thinking of some rules like if you draft a player, you must keep that player for a couple of years. We’re still determining how long you have to keep that player. And if you draft a player, you can’t just trade them immediately to another team,” said Palou.
“If you draft a player, you want that player to play for you, right? You’re not just gonna give that player up to someone else. We’re looking at a lot of things to make sure that teams don’t get too strong and too one-sided that they really dominate the league. We’d like the league to be very competitive,” he added.
And as the Akari-Nxled trade is now expected to get the green light from league, Palou made firm assertions on how the course of intra-league transfers will pan out the rest of the way.
“Yes, we’ll make sure of that that (there won’t be farm teams in the PVL). Sabi ko, let’s come up with the rules right away so that it doesn’t happen again.”
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