PVL exonerates Celso

Premier Volleyball League (PVL) commissioner Sherwin Malonzo clarified on Sunday that volleyball referee Bobby Celso was not suspended but was just reassigned to a different officiating job after a controversial call in Petro Gazz and Creamline’s semifinal game on Thursday last week.

“We assigned him a new role. There’s many (rumors) going around, (that he was given) suspension. He’s not suspended. There’s no suspension that happened, just to be clear,” Malonzo said.

“We have a pool of referees. Every match, we select the referees required to officiate our matches. So I guess, because of the heat that the person (received), we just reassigned him to a different job.”

Celso’s decision caused an uproar among volleyball fans as he reversed the call on Creamline spiker Alyssa Valdez’s attack which was initially ruled out as out-of-bounds late in the third set after a linesman insisted it was a ball touch when Petro Gazz’s MJ Phillips and Aiza Maizo-Pontillas attempted to block it.

Petro Gazz even released a statement a day after the game to suggest several actions that “could’ve calmed the storm caused by the call.”

“Right after the match, we called up the referee and the officials involved, to discuss what really happened from his point of view (when) we reviewed the videos of the game,” Malonzo said.

“From a technical point of view, I don’t think there was anything wrong (with the call).”

However, Malonzo said that if the call happened at a different point in the game, there would be no discussion regarding Celso’s decision.

“But it only happened at 25-all in the third set. The speculations spread that if (the call was awarded) to Petro (Gazz), they could’ve won. It’s all speculation. In terms of mechanics, the way he decided, there’s nothing wrong with the call of the line judge, and the referee did nothing wrong.”