Rohit Bhandiye
PANAJI
Goa will host the player auction of Prime Volleyball League (PVL) Season 5 on August 17. The league is officially set to begin on November 30, 2026. Franchises will assemble their squads for the upcoming season from a pool of India's top volleyball talent at the player auction. The league also features global stars alongside the country's best talent. The league has achieved a major milestone by receiving recognition from the sport's global governing body, FIVB, as India's first-division professional volleyball league.
This recognition creates official international pathways for Indian clubs and players to compete in global tournaments, elevating the stakes for this year's player auctions taking place in Goa.
There is no doubt that the league has created new opportunities for Indian clubs to test themselves against top teams across Asia and globally.
The aim of the tournament had always been to build a league that delivers both sporting excellence and long-term impact. Since the onset of the league in 2022, the Indian national team has risen up from World No. 60 to World No. 42 in the FIVB rankings.
The inaugural season had taken place in February 2022. The league has ten franchises - Ahmedabad Defenders, Bengaluru Torpedoes, Calicut Heroes, Chennai Blitz, Delhi Toofans, Goa Guardians, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Kochi Blue Spikers, Mumbai Meteors and Kolkata Thunderbolts.
Each team will have 12 players with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. Each team can pick maximum of two international players.
There are a total of 48 matches with each team playing against each other in a single round-robin format with the top 5 teams moving into the "Super 5" stage, where the top team advances directly to the Final, and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams play an Eliminator.
The official host venues and the complete match schedule for the 10-city league will be released closer to the start of the tournament. The tournament is typically played at centralized, world-class indoor arenas. In previous seasons, locations such as the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai, Koramangala Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru, and Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Kochi have been utilized.
In June 2024, Goa Guardians that is based in Panaji joined the league as its tenth team. Their inaugural season was during 2025 Prime Volleyball League season. They were bought by the Chekuri Sports Ventures. Chirag Yadav is the captain of Goa Guardians while TC Jothish is its head coach.
Bengaluru Torpedoes are the defending champions while Kolkata Thunderbolts, Ahmedabad Defenders and Calicut Heroes have also won the league in previous editions.
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