The Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) is looking forward to a promising development as it wrapped up its active bidding to host the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) 2025 Men’s Volleyball World Championships.

From 31 initial countries expressing interest to host the grandest volleyball showpiece, the FIVB is now down to its final few candidates with the Philippines hoping to give life to the event next year for the first time.

“We’ve had the bidding process going for many months now. We actually had 31 initial countries that expressed interest in this process. So we’ve spent a number of months now meeting with these countries and discussing the process. We’re not 31 anymore, we are down to the final few now. But we’ve been quite overwhelmed to be honest at the interest that we’ve had for such an event,” said Finn Taylor, CEO of Volleyball World on Thursday, Feb. 29, at the Grand Hyatt Manila during its bid meeting with the PNVF led by its President Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

The Philippines officially submitted its bid to the FIVB last year in July ahead of the country’s hosting of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) third leg which featured eight countries including world’s best Poland, Italy (No. 3), Japan (No. 4), Brazil (No. 5), Slovenia (No. 7), Canada (No. 12), Netherlands (No. 13) and China (No. 31) which competed during the group phase of the tournament.

While the FIVB and Volleyball World have broken the status quo by awarding a portion of the VNL hosting to the Philippines which was the only host country with no competing team in the tournament, the volleyball-crazed nation definitely came through with a huge turnout.

The best players in the world have been coming to Manila since 2022 as part of the PNVF’s three-year contract with the volleyball governing bodies.

“[This is an] opportunity for the Philippines, opportunity for volleyball. This will be one of the most significant sporting events in 2025. Volleyball is, by all measures, the fourth or fifth biggest sport in the world. It’s an incredible and significant sport. And the World Championships is the biggest event of the volleyball calendar. It is where we will crown the greatest nation of all in volleyball. It is where we’ll have hundreds of thousands of spectators coming in the arena, coming to the Philippines to watch the event live and experience the atmosphere,” said Taylor.

With the opportunity to not only host the biggest volleyball event, but grow the domestic game and promote the growing men’s action, the PNVF is also thrilled to have the Philippine men’s national volleyball team earn a potential outright spot to compete in the biennial meet this time and go up against the greatest nations – as the lowest ranked team in the pool of 32 participants.

“We’re really excited to be here to discuss this opportunity. And this really is the culmination of many years of discussion and successful events in partnership with President Suzara and the PNVF. We’ve seen over the past few years that culminate in what I would explain to you is the most significant VNL events we’ve had on the calendar,” Taylor said.

“The VNL at the Mall of Asia Arena last year was the best event of VNL and we’ve had 14 stops around the world. It was by far the best event. This is incredibly exciting for us because it shows that the country really embraces the best of volleyball. The support that we’ve had for the men’s event is an amazing signal for us as to the passion of the fans for volleyball. We were able to see not only the fans embrace the teams, but the teams embrace the fans. We still have Polish, Slovenian, all of these countries which you’d not naturally expect to have an affinity now with the Philippines, that couldn’t wait now to come back. We’re really excited to continue to grow that passion and be able to  foster the sport and foster the men’s game here in the Philippines.

The winner of the bid is set to be announced by mid March, as the Philippines will once again rely on its legion of passionate volleyball fans that made history last year after setting the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) record attendance during its season-ending championship game.

"We’re very excited. This meeting calls for each one of us to carry on and understand the condition to host for the first time and ensure the success of the event,” said Suzara.

“Over the last few years, PNVF has received overwhelming support. This meeting represents our acknowledgement of your support as we once again kindly press for your assistance in our bid to host the World Championships in 2025. It’s a long journey. That’s why we have to work together as one team,” the PNVF chief added.

Aside from the VNL, part of the Philippines’ growing hosting portfolio includes the FIBA Basketball World Cup which it co-hosted with Japan and Indonesia last year.

Should the country lose the bid to host the World Championships singlehandedly, another option is sharing the hosting rights with Japan anew.