The 2021 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) season was the fourth season of the

Premier Volleyball League The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is the top-level professional women's volleyball league in the Philippines organized by the Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. The PVL was established in 2004 as the inter-collegiate Shakey's V-League (SV ...

and the first season of the PVL as a professional league. No tournament was held in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the 2021 season was staged with precautionary measures.

Changes

Professional status

The

Games and Amusements Board The Games and Amusements Board (GAB; ) is the government-run regulatory body of professional sports in the Philippines. History The Games and Amusements Board initially started its operation in 1951 with the issuance of Executive Order No. 392 ...

in October 2020 issued a directive that it would consider players compensated for non-national team play would be considered as professionals, as well as that for all sporting events organized for profit as professional in nature. This has raised concerns over the status of semi-professional leagues such as the PVL and its rival league, the

PSL PSL may refer to: Sport *Pakistan Super League, a Twenty20 cricket league *Palau Soccer League, top division association football league in Palau *Pilipinas Super League, a professional basketball league *Philippine Super Liga, a defunct profes ...

. The PVL in particular was concerned over financial aspects of running as a professional league. In November 2020, the PVL announced that the league would turn professional starting the 2021 season, believing it has enough women players to make the move. The league was already considering to turn professional due to the collegiate league

UAAP The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univer ...

deciding to bar its rookies from playing in commercial leagues starting its

UAAP Season 81 UAAP Season 81 is the 2018–19 athletic year of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). This season is hosted by National University (Philippines), National University. Eight member universities of the UAAP competed in th ...

(2018–19), in anticipation that all college players would not be allowed to play in the PVL. Prior to the league's professionalization, the PVL was considered as semi-professional and thus its affairs are not supervised or regulated by GAB Six PVL teams - BaliPure, Banko Perlas, Choco Mucho, Creamline, Motolite and Petro Gazz - agreed with the move for PVL to turn professional. A new separate league called the V-League, in reference to the PVL's old name, will be formed to accommodate collegiate and amateur teams which could no longer take part in the PVL due to the league's professionalization. Prior to the PVL's professionalization, it has hosted the collegiate conference.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the

, the Premier Volleyball League had to secure permit from the

Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is an inactive task force organized by the executive of the government of the Philippines to respond to affairs concerning emerging infectious diseases in ...

(IATF-EID) of the Philippine national government to host games. The Open conference, the only tournament of the 2021 season, was held under a "bubble" format with players and staff isolated at the playing venue. The PVL planned to organize at least two conferences, with the second being the Reinforced Conference which allows teams to field foreign players. It was initially cancelled for the 2021 season by May 2021 due to logistical issues of bringing in foreign players due to pandemic-related travel restrictions as well as to accommodate the Philippine women's national team's preparation and participation in the

2021 Southeast Asian Games The 2021 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 31st Southeast Asian Games, 31st SEA Games or SEA Games 31, and also recognized as Viet Nam 2021, were the 31st edition of the Southeast Asian Games, the biennial regional multi-sport e ...

and the 2021 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship Both tournaments were later postponed to next year. The conduct of a second conference was again considered after the conclusion of the Open Conference. However such plans were again cancelled.

Open conference

Participating teams

Preliminary round

Final round

Final standings

Awards

Player of the week

References

{{Premier Volleyball League seasons 2021 in Philippine sport 2021 in women's volleyball Premier Volleyball League, 2021