Eight women’s teams and 13 men’s teams have so far registered for the 2021 Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) Premier League set to serve off on January 23 on a different format.  

KVF are set to adopt the FIVB (international volleyball federation) format where one venue will host three teams with each team playing two matches. 

The league is expected to end sometime in June, 2021 with no tournaments played during the first season. 

“In the FIVB format, at the preliminary level, 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once.

The teams are divided into four pools of four teams each week and compete for five weeks, for 120 matches.

The top five teams after the preliminaries join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round,” explained KVF media liason officer Isaac Tirop. 

 For the final round, six qualified teams play in two pools of three teams in round robin. The top two teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. 

The pool winners play against the runners-up from the other pool. The semi finals winners advance to compete for the title.

Previously, the league was played in tournament format where all teams played league matches in different counties before taking part in tournaments.

With the league set to conclude in June,  tournaments will be allowed to run between then and September when the new season will serve off.  

With Kasarani Indoor Arena already booked by the National Olympics Committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics preparations, KVF are hunting for new grounds to host their league as they also intend to have matches played indoors. 

So far in Nairobi,  the federation has identified Bomas of Kenya and Africa Nazarene University as potential hosting grounds. 

Teams that have registered so far include KCB, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), holders Prisons Kenya,  Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), Kenya Army,  Kenya Pipeline, Prisons Nairobi and Nairobi Water in the women’s category. 

 In the men’s league General Service Unit (GSU),  KDF,  Forest Rangers, Prisons Kenya,  Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Equity Bank,  Western Prisons, Nairobi Prisons, Rift Valley Prisons, Vihiga County,  Kenya Army, Administration Police and Prisons Mombasa are ready to battle for the title.