FIVB Volleyball World League

FIVB Volleyball World League

Current season, competition or edition: 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League
Sport	Volleyball
Founded	1990
No. of teams	12 in Group 1 12 in Group 2 12 in Group 3
Continent	International (FIVB)
Most recent champion(s)	France (1st title)
Most titles	Brazil (9 titles)

The FIVB Volleyball World League is an international men's volleyball competition. Created in 1990, it is the longest and richest of all the international events organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The tournament is annual. The women's version of the competition is called FIVB World Grand Prix. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitions, the World Championship, the World Cup and the World Grand Champions Cup.

History

Origins

File:WorldLeagueLogo.png

First FIVB World League logo

File:VolleyballWL newlogo.PNG

Second FIVB World League logo

The World League was created in 1990 as part of the intensive marketing programme that would become a distinctive mark of the FIVB's activities near the end of the century. The idea was to promote the sport of volleyball by establishing an annual competition that would appeal to audiences all over the world.

At that point, international competitions involving top volleyball teams (e.g., the Olympic Games, the World Championship) took place only in 4-year cycles, and were usually confined to a host city or nation. By contrast, the World League was designed to be played on a one-year basis, with a system of rotating cities that allowed every team to host a number of matches in the preliminary round. Further restrictions on participation, such as mandatory local broadcasting, ensured massive TV & media coverage.

The FIVB's strategy eventually proved visionary: at the turn of the century, the World League was fully consolidated as a major international volleyball event. Generous rewards in cash - from 1990 to 2004, the total sum spent on prize money jumped from $1 million to $13 million - compensated in the eyes of the national federations for the competition's relative lack of tradition and prestige.

Following the success of the World League, the FIVB launched a sister project in 1993 for women's volleyball, the Grand Prix. It was very effective in East Asia, where this type of event has become tremendously popular, but its results in a worldwide scale still remain timid.

Winners

In the 1990s, the Italians dominated the World League, winning the first three tournaments in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Playing at home, Brazil, at the time the Olympic champions, managed to take the gold in 1993, but Italy regained the title in 1994 and 1995.

In 1996, foreshadowing what would happen just a couple of months later at the Atlanta Olympic Games, the Netherlands beat them in an extremely tight five-set match, before Italy once again won the gold in 1997. In 1998, the winner was Cuba, while in 1999 and 2000 Italy won again.

As can be seen, Italy were clearly the dominant team in the first decade of the World League: from 1990 to 2000, the World League was played 11 times, and Italy took gold eight times, while the remaining three titles were won by three different teams.

Italy's supremacy in the World League began to wane in 2001, when Brazil won a second gold medal, beating the Italians in three straight sets. With further titles each year from 2003 to 2007, and winning another titles in 2009 and 2010, the Brazilians were the preeminent at the start of the 21st century, being also World and Olympic Champions. The interruptions to Brazil's dominance came in 2002, when Russia took the title, and in 2008, with the United States winning gold and gaining positive momentum going into the Beijing Olympics.

Competition formula

The FIVB is constantly adapting the World League's competition formula to improve competitiveness and to make the games more attractive to the audience. Nevertheless, a few basic rules and restrictions will probably remain unchanged in the following years.

• Teams who participate must provide local media coverage and live TV broadcasting.
• The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round (usually called "Intercontinental Round"), with a system of rotating host cities; and one or more final rounds, with one or more host nations.
• In the preliminary round, teams are organized in pools. Each team plays a total of four matches against all other teams in its pool, two at home, two as visitors. Each pair of matches is played over a weekend.
• When all the matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams in each pool qualify for the final round(s), and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of n depends on the number of participating teams and the format that will be employed in the finals.
• Host nation(s) automatically qualify for the final round(s).
• The FIVB has tried various formats for the final round(s): Top Six, Top Four, Quarter-Semi-finals (Olympic format). For some years now (2004), the most commonly used is a mixed format: quarterfinalists are organized in two pools, and the top two teams in each pool play semifinals and finals according to the Olympic format.
• In the preliminary round, a team is usually given the right to work with a list of nineteen players, from which the coach builds the fourteen-player line-up included two liberos(if the team include only one libero in the roster, their max roster number is limited to 12) that will be employed in a particular weekend. For the final round(s), only fourteen players included two liberos are allowed.

Hosts

List of hosts by number of final round championships hosted.

Times hosted	Host	Year(s)
6	Italy	1991, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2014
5	Brazil	1993, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2015
3	Argentina	1999, 2010, 2013
3	Poland	2001, 2007, 2011
2	Netherlands	1996, 2000
2	Russia	1997, 2006
2	Serbia	2005, 2009
1	Bulgaria	2012
1	Japan	1990
1	Spain	2003

Appearance

Brazil and Italy are the only teams that participated in all editions of the World League.

• *: Russia's total includes appearances as Soviet Union and CIS.
• **: Serbia's total includes appearances as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.

Results

Main article: FIVB Volleyball World League statistics

Year	Final host		Final				3rd place match				Teams IR / FR
			Champions	Score	Runners-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
1990	Osaka		Italy	3–0	Netherlands		30x27px Brazil	3–1	Soviet Union		8 / 4
1991	Milan		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Soviet Union	3–1	Netherlands		10 / 4
1992	Genoa		Italy	3–1	Cuba		United States	3–1	Netherlands		12 / 4
1993	São Paulo		Brazil	3–0	Russia		Italy	3–0	Cuba		12 / 4
1994	Milan		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Brazil	3–2	Bulgaria		12 / 6
1995	Rio de Janeiro		Italy	3–1	Brazil		Cuba	3–2	Russia		12 / 6
1996	Rotterdam		Netherlands	3–2	Italy		Russia	3–2	Cuba		11 / 6
1997	Moscow		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Russia	3–0	Netherlands		12 / 6
1998	Milan		Cuba	Round-robin	Russia		Netherlands	Round-robin	Italy		12 / 4
1999	Mar del Plata		Italy	3–1	Cuba		Brazil	3–1	Russia		12 / 6
2000	Rotterdam		Italy	3–2	Russia		Brazil	3–0	Yugoslavia		12 / 6
2001	Katowice		Brazil	3–0	Italy		Russia	3–0	Yugoslavia		16 / 8
2002	Belo Horizonte		Russia	3–1	Brazil		Yugoslavia	3–1	Italy		16 / 8
2003	Madrid		Brazil	3–2	Serbia and Montenegro		Italy	3–1	Czech Republic		16 / 8
2004	Rome		Brazil	3–1	Italy		Serbia and Montenegro	3–0	Bulgaria		12 / 4
2005	Belgrade		Brazil	3–1	Serbia and Montenegro		Cuba	3–2	Poland		12 / 4
2006	Moscow		Brazil	3–2	France		Russia	3–0	Bulgaria		16 / 6
2007	Katowice		Brazil	3–1	Russia		United States	3–1	Poland		16 / 6
2008	Rio de Janeiro		United States	3–1	Serbia		Russia	3–1	Brazil		16 / 6
2009	Belgrade		Brazil	3–2	Serbia		Russia	3–0	Cuba		16 / 6
2010	Córdoba		Brazil	3–1	Russia		Serbia	3–2	Cuba		16 / 6
2011	Gdańsk		Russia	3–2	Brazil		Poland	3–0	Argentina		16 / 8
2012	Sofia		Poland	3–0	United States		Cuba	3–2	Bulgaria		16 / 6
2013	Mar del Plata		Russia	3–0	Brazil		Italy	3–2	Bulgaria		18 / 6
2014	Florence		United States	3–1	Brazil		Italy	3–0	Iran		28 / 6
2015	Rio de Janeiro		France	3–0	Serbia		United States	3–0	Poland		32 / 6
2016	TBA										36 / 6

Medals summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	9	5	4	18
2	Italy	8	3	4	15
3	Russia*	3	5	7	15
4	United States	2	1	3	6
5	Cuba	1	5	3	9
6	Netherlands	1	1	1	3
7	France	1	1	0	2
8	Poland	1	0	1	2
9	Serbia**	0	5	3	8
Total		26	26	26	78

* = FIVB considers Russia (Since 1993) as the inheritor of the records of Soviet Union (1948–1991) and CIS (1992).

** = FIVB considers Serbia (Since 2007) as the inheritor of the records of SFR Yugoslavia (1948–1991), FR Yugoslavia (1992–2002) and Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006).

MVP by edition

• 1990 – Andrea Zorzi
• 1991 – Andrea Zorzi
• 1992 – Lorenzo Bernardi
• 1993 – Giovane Gávio
• 1994 – Andrea Giani
• 1995 – Dmitriy Fomin
• 1996 – Lorenzo Bernardi
• 1997 – Guido Görtzen
• 1998 – Osvaldo Hernández
• 1999 – Osvaldo Hernández
• 2000 – Andrea Sartoretti
• 2001 – Ivan Miljković
• 2002 – Ivan Miljković
• 2003 – Ivan Miljković

• 2004 – Andrea Sartoretti
• 2005 – Ivan Miljković
• 2006 – Gilberto Godoy Filho
• 2007 – Ricardo Garcia
• 2008 – Lloy Ball
• 2009 – Sérgio Santos
• 2010 – Murilo Endres
• 2011 – Maxim Mikhaylov
• 2012 – Bartosz Kurek
• 2013 – Nikolay Pavlov
• 2014 – Taylor Sander
• 2015 – Earvin N'Gapeth
• 2016 –

See also

• FIVB World Grand Prix
• FIVB Volleyball World Championship
• FIVB Volleyball World Cup
• List of indoor volleyball world title winners
• List of indoor volleyball world medalists

References

External links