MUMBAI: A little over a month after Baseline Ventures India Pvt Ltd, commercial rights holders for the Pro Volleyball League, confirmed the dates for PVL’s second season, in an announcement that was endorsed by the Volleyball Federation of India, the national body on Monday did a complete volte-face.
The VFI, at its annual general body meeting in Jaipur on Monday, announced it had terminated the contract with Baseline, following a “breach of agreement”.
In a press release, VFI stated “it has decided to amicably settle/[sent] termination notice to Baseline Ventures India Private Limited with immediate effect since they [Baseline Ventures] have breached the agreement.”
The release stated the VFI had decided to rename PVL as Indian Volley League (IVL) or National Volleyball League (NVL) and conduct it from February 25, 2020.
For the record, baseline had announced last month that the second season of the RuPay Pro Volleyball League would tip off on 7th February 2020.
Coming back to the VFI release, it states that the venues, broadcaster and franchisees would be “communicated in due course”. Six to eight teams will be participating, the release notes.
“The house”, the statement emphasised, “has unanimously authorised the governing council to take all major decisions for the conduct of the League”.
VFI president S Vasudevan, executive vice-president Raj Kumar, secretary Ramavtar Singh Jakhar, senior vice-president Rathin Roy Chaudhary and treasurer Shekhar Bose attended the meeting which saw the participation of 30 affiliated states/units.
PVL CEO Joy Bhattacharjya, meanwhile, told The Hindu that the VFI’s decision had come as a “complete surprise”.
Bhattacharjya told the daily that the VFI president and secretary, FIVB secretary and Baseline Ventures had agreed at a meeting on November 1 in New Delhi to hold the PVL from February 7, 2020. “It was also announced [on Nov. 7] that the FIVB president would attend the [PVL] final. We await a formal communication from VFI,” Bhattacharjya said.
Does the VFI’s decision have anything to do with an investigation ordered in August by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the national body for alleged “abuse of dominant position”?.
It could very well be.
For the record, the CCI order (available with SportzPower) for a probe followed a complaint by Sharavan Yadav, Amitsinh Tanwar and Lavmeet Katariya – international volleyball players who have represented India in numerous tournaments, and was first reported by PTI.
The complainants alleged that Baseline Ventures was arbitrarily appointed as organiser of the volleyball league when VFI entered into agreement with Baseline in 2018 granting it exclusive rights for organizing a volleyball league for men, women and beach volleyball in India for the next 10 years.
Certain clauses in the agreement placed restrictions upon other persons or enterprises who wish to conduct similar leagues in India and also placed restrictions on players for participating in the other leagues if they are part of Baseline’s volleyball league, the complainants alleged.
The complainants further alleged that the players are restricted from participating even in global events like Asian Games, Olympics or Volleyball World Cup, if the dates of these events clash with Baseline’s Volleyball League.
Besides, VFI being the sole authority for dispute resolution for players, the players have no recourse or remedy in case the VFI decides to impose punishment on them for playing in other leagues which amounts to abuse of dominant position, the complainant alleged.
The fair trade regulator said VFI falls within the definition of a enterprise and considered ‘market for organization of professional volleyball tournaments/events in India’ and ‘market for services of volleyball players in India’ as the relevant one.
The regulator found VFI in the dominant position in the relevant market.
Regarding the clauses that restrict players availability, CCI said that “such restrictions appear to limit the provision of services of participating volleyball players in the relevant market for services of volleyball players in India and thus appear to be covered under Section 4 the Act”.
Section 4 pertains to abuse of dominant position.
“The Commission cannot be oblivious to the fact that VFI has entered into an arrangement with Baseline, thereby granting some exclusive rights to the said company to hold a Volleyball League and simultaneously placing restrictions on the players participating in the Volleyball League,” the CCI said in an order dated August 7.
The regulator said this conduct of VFI needs to be examined through an investigation by the director general (DG), to determine whether the same resulted in violation of provisions of the Act including that of Section 4.
The DG was directed to investigate into the matter and submit its report within a period of 150 days.
Additionally, it is worth noting here that the idea of starting a league for volleyball was originally conceived by Sportz & Live Entertainment Pvt Ltd (Sportzlive) in 2015 and an agreement was signed in 2016 for a league that had pretty much the same template as what ultimately became the PVL. However, due to infighting between office-bearers of the federation, that agreement was not given effect to.
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