The Defenders will continue to give it their all in the conference.
The Gerflor Defenders have been facing heavy controversy as of late.
In a recent post on X (formerly known as Twitter), volleyball analyst and host Mela Tunay hinted at the management of one team for allegedly failing to pay its players.
Fans, of course, were immediately able to pinpoint the team that Tunay was talking about.
In turn, the PVL has already announced they began investigating the issue concerning Gerflor and their players.
Speaking after their straight-set loss against the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers, coach Sammy Acaylar admitted that there is indeed a problem that the team is facing, but he is letting management address this first.
“There is a problem, alam naman niyo 'yun. Maybe it's up to their management to answer but then as I said earlier kanina, ayaw namin pangunahan ang management,” Acaylar told reporters.
“Sabi ko sa kanila, susuporta ako sa inyo basta dapat maalagaan ang players natin kasi galing din ako diyan eh,” he added.
Acaylar, however, also said that the issue has been affecting the players. So far, the Defenders have yet to win a match since joining the league during the previous Invitational Conference.
“Actually, mababa ang morale nila,” said Acaylar. “Sino ba namang players na natalo na nga kami, sandamakmak pa ang problema, pero I control my players.”
According to Gerflor captain Pia Sarmiento, there’s no bad blood between the players and management, but they are hoping that this issue will be resolved right away.
“Kumbaga siyempre sa amin nagtatrabaho lang din naman kami. Siguro ang inisip lang din namin is mabigyan ng effort 'yung ginagawa namin. Kung may bad blood, wala naman,” said Sarmiento.
For now, Acaylar said that the team will continue to work throughout the PVL Second All-Filipino Conference. However, if the issue is still not resolved by then, that’s when they’ll take action.
“Saka kami kikilos at saka kami gagalaw if in case na talagang worse comes to worse, so hangga't maari, ma-solve ang problems,” said Acaylar, “I told my players, 'pag wala talaga, that's the time na kikilos kaming lahat.”
(With reports from Mei-Lin Lozada, One Sports Digital & Martie Bautista, News5)
(CF)