Volleyball Federation of India launches Indian Volleyball League to compete with Prime Volleyball League

Following their skirmish with the Baseline Ventures, the Volley Federation of India have decided to start a new volleyball league to compete with the newly launched Prime Volleyball League. The new volleyball League which was announced today by the federation will be known as the Indian Volleyball League and is scheduled to start around June or July.

“The Indian Volleyball League will be held in June-July 2022, with six to eight teams on a franchise-based model,” said VFI CEO Ramavtar Singh Jakhar told The Bridge.

The Volleyball Federation of India have also secured the official broadcast deal for the inaugural season of the Indian Volleyball League with Eurosport. VFI announced the deal during the executive committee meeting of the federation on Sunday.

The newly launched league will have a different structure in comparison to the Indian Volley League started way back in 2011 entirely by the VFI.

The VFI, which recently conducted the Volleyball Nationals in the middle of the ongoing PVL, has constantly distanced itself from the privately-owned league by calling it illegal. VFI also refused to make any claims on the future of the players featuring in the Prime Volleyball League.

“The VFI is not concerned with any privately run illegal leagues in the country. VFI is the governing body and the events which we hold are affiliated with the federation. Commenting on anything else is against the rules of VFI,” states Jakhar.

VFI are expected to hold a the national camp for the 2022 Asian Games in March. The camp will be arranged for the players to prepare for the upcoming Asian Games.

“We recently held the nationals and will have the Asian Games camp in March. Before that, the VFI is conducting the 34th Federation Cup, which was cancelled last year due to COVID-19, from 15th February in Bhubaneswar and this year’s Federation Cup edition from 9th to 15th March 2022 in Bhilwara,” he said.

The current Prime Volleyball League season has seen a lot of competition among the seven competitive teams. While the Kolkata Thunderbolts are leading the charge, Ahmedabad Defenders and Bengaluru Torpedoes are also close by in the points table.