FIVB Volleyball World League – An Overview
This year marks the completion of 22 years of the FIVB Volleyball World League since it began in the year 1990. The tournament is a men’s event in which top teams of countries from all over the world take part on an annual basis to play volleyball at a highly competitive level. Since the time that the tournament started taking place, volleyball has gained huge popularity in various countries of the world.
The FIVB World League was the first volleyball men’s tournament that was played annually at an international level. The success of the championship gave rise to the FIVB World Grand Prix three years later, a women’s annual international tournament that adopted a similar pattern to the World League.
The ongoing Intercontinental round of the FIVB World League started off on May 18 and is scheduled to last till July 1. The total numbers of teams that are taking part in the championship are 16. Before the final round of the tournament, the teams play against each other during three weeks in the preliminary round. Each round consist of four pools; with teams from each pool playing in one particular city so that each preliminary round has matches being staged in four different host cities of the world.
The final round of the championship will be starting from July 4 and will go on till July 8. The host city of the final matches is Sofia, Bulgaria. Therefore, as a rule, Bulgaria has already qualified to be in the final round of the championship. Apart from Bulgaria, four top teams from each of the four pools will earn themselves a ticket into the final round. Other than that, the team that stands as the best runners-up from all the four pools will also qualify. As a result, a total of six teams will be competing in the final round of the championship.
The final round of the tournament will see the six teams divided into two pools with each pool consisting of three teams. By the end of these pool matches, the top two teams from each of the two pools will be heading for the semi final round of the tournament.
Cuba is currently at the top of Pool A with a total of 20 points. These points have been obtained after winning seven matches and losing only one. On the other hand, Poland tops Pool B with 29 points in its bag secured by earning 10 wins at the cost of two defeats. The team that tops Pool C currently is USA with 20 points. USA has won seven matches in the tournament and lost two. On the other hand, the leader of Pool D is Germany with 19 points as it has won six matches and lost two.
According to the current rankings, the best runner’s up is Brazil with 26 points. Brazil finds itself in Pool B and has been able to tally eight wins and four defeats.
The Brazilian team has the highest number of title wins in the tournament history as they have been able to become champions for a total of nine times. Apart from that, the Brazilians also hold the record of winning the championship title for five consecutive times. Brazil was able to manage this impressive feat in the years 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
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