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Five years from now, the Philippines will host the FIVB Women’s World Championship.
After a successful hosting of the 2025 FIVB Men’s World Championship, the Philippines will once again be the home of world-class volleyball.
As announced by FIVB president Fabio Azevedo and Brazilian volleyball icon Leila Barros, the country has been awarded the hosting rights for the 2029 Women’s World Championship, which will mark the debut of Alas Pilipinas Women on the world stage.
The huge development was made official on Sunday, September 28, shortly before the Men’s World Championship final between Italy and Bulgaria at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“Hosting the Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2029 in the Philippines is an opportunity to again showcase not only the very best of volleyball but also the positive impact our sport has on society,” said Azevedo following the joint announcement with Barros.
As part of the 32-team field, Alas Women’s World Championship debut also marks the country’s second appearance in the tournament following the 1974 edition held in Mexico, where the country finished 18th.
No time to waste
No less than Alas Pilipinas Women, led by co-captains Jia Morado-de Guzman and Dawn Macandili-Catindig, were present to hear the huge announcement. Especially after Alas Men’s inspiring run in this year’s World Championship, de Guzman knows that anything is possible as Alas Women look forward to their own campaign four years from now.
“We’re so, so happy! We couldn’t believe it at first…but biglang napunta sa amin sa ‘Oh, that’s giving us a lot of time to prepare for it! With what Alas Men showed, with 16 months of preparation tas ganyan kaganda ‘yung pinakita, there are so many possibilities talaga,” de Guzman told reporters along the sidelines of the MOA Arena.
As early as now, De Guzman is urging all stakeholders to pour their support toward Alas Women, especially with the four-year allowance granted by the announcement. If the national team has already shown results with a few weeks or months’ worth of preparation, what more if we can capitalize on such a huge lead time?
“We can’t really bank on what we’ve been doing the past years na few weeks lang before the tournament ‘yung preparation. The past years have been very kind to us in terms of results, but that’s only banking on weeks, few months of preparation,” de Guzman stressed.
“This time, we’re years ahead, so we have to take advantage of this, and hopefully, hopefully, all of the teams, all of the clubs, all of the universities can support us because the world has already seen how good the Philippines is. We have so much potential talaga, and we want to show up, we want to give our best.”
Alas Women are also expected to benefit from the FIVB’s seven-year development plan for Philippine volleyball. As explained by Azevedo to The GAME in a prior interview, a part of this platform will be exposing the entire Alas Pilipinas program to world-class competition, as well as giving the Philippines more opportunities to host international volleyball tournaments.
For Jia de Guzman, this development plan will be crucial as the Philippines continues to establish itself as a volleyball powerhouse.
“This is something that we have been waiting for. Everyone sa volleyball community — men’s, women’s, beach volleyball — this is the kind of program that we’ve been waiting for years, and it’s inspiring also for the next generation to come in right now. It’s a really good time to come into Alas and to show what the Philippines has.”
Banner images from the Southeast Asian Volleyball Association on Facebook.