September 11 ------ Volleyball star Jaja Santiago, now known as Sachi Minowa, will not be able to represent Japan despite successfully changing her citizenship recently. According to newly-elected Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) President Ramon “Tats” Suzara, Santiago is included in Section 5.2.3 of FIVB’s eligibility rule which indicates “The player has not represented the senior national team of the Federation of Origin (FO).”
“Si Jaja she’s married, right? But there’s a new rule from FIVB last year that if you played for a national team of another country, you couldn’t transfer federation anymore,” said Suzara in Tuesday’s PSA Forum presented by presented by San Miguel Corporation, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, Smart/PLDT, and the country’s 24/7 sports app Arena Plus. “Even if Jaja has two passports, the Federation of Origin (FO) is Philippines, so when you change a federation, one time lang ‘yan, pero what happened now she played for the Philippines three or four times,” he continued. “With a new rule from last year, she can never play for Japan.”
Suzara also stressed that the problem was not Santiago's passport but her FO after she suited up for the Philippine national team several times before. For this development, the PNVF will keep its doors open for the 6-foot-4 middle blocker. “She’s welcome to play for the national team but for her to represent Japan, at the moment, no,” Suzara added.
Source: mb.com.ph
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