FIVB Volleyball World League

(Redirected from World League (volleyball))

The FIVB Volleyball World League was an annual international men's volleyball competition. Created in 1990, it was the longest and richest of all the international events organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The women's version of the competition was called FIVB Volleyball 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.

FIVB Volleyball World League
SportVolleyball
Founded1990
Ceased2017
Replaced byNations League
Challenger Cup
No. of teams12 in Group 1
12 in Group 2
12 in Group 3
ContinentInternational (FIVB)
Last
champion(s)
 France (2nd title)
Most titles Brazil (9 titles)

From 2018, the World League and World Grand Prix was replaced by the men's and women's Nations League and men's and women's Challenger Cup.[1][2]

History

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Origins

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First FIVB World League logo
 
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.[citation needed]

Winners

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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 winners were 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

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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

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List of hosts by number of final round championships hosted.

Times hosted Hosts Year(s)
6   Italy 1991, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2014
6   Brazil 1993, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2015, 2017
4   Poland 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016
3   Argentina 1999, 2010, 2013
2   Netherlands 1996, 2000
2   Russia 1997, 2006
2   Serbia 2005, 2009
1   Japan 1990
1   Spain 2003
1   Bulgaria 2012

Appearance

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

Team Intercontinental Round Final Round[A]
App. First Last App. First Last
  Brazil 28 1990 2017 25 1990 2017
  Italy 28 1990 2017 22 1990 2016
  Russia[B] 26 1990 2017 22 1990 2017
  Cuba 26 1991 2016 15 1991 2012
  Japan 24 1990 2017 1 2008 2008
  France 22 1990 2017 7 2001 2017
  Netherlands 21 1990 2017 10 1990 2002
  Serbia[C] 20 1997 2017 13 2000 2017
  United States 20 1990 2017 11 1992 2017
  Bulgaria 20 1994 2017 10 1994 2013
  Poland 20 1998 2017 9 2001 2016
  Argentina 19 1996 2017 5 1999 2013
  South Korea 19 1991 2017 1 1995 1995
  China 18 1990 2017 1 1996 1996
  Spain 15 1995 2017 3 1999 2003
  Portugal 14 1999 2017
  Greece 13 1993 2017 1 2003 2003
  Germany 13 1992 2017 1 2012 2012
  Finland 13 1993 2017
  Canada 11 1991 2017 2 2013 2017
  Venezuela 9 2001 2017
  Egypt 7 2006 2017
  Czech Republic 5 2003 2017 1 2003 2003
  Australia 5 1999 2017 1 2014 2014
  Iran 5 2013 2017 1 2014 2014
  Puerto Rico 4 2011 2016
  Belgium 4 2014 2017
  Mexico 4 2014 2017
  Slovakia 4 2014 2017
  Tunisia 4 2014 2017
  Turkey 4 2014 2017
  Kazakhstan 3 2015 2017
  Montenegro 3 2015 2017
  Chinese Taipei 2 2016 2017
  Qatar 2 2016 2017
  Slovenia 2 2016 2017
  Austria 1 2017 2017
  Estonia 1 2017 2017
  Team last allocated in Group 1
  Team last allocated in Group 2
  Team last allocated in Group 3
  Team was inactive in the last World League

Results summary

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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
 
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 / Recife
 
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  
GdańskSopot
 
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  
Kraków
 
Serbia
3–0  
Brazil
 
France
3–0  
Italy
36 / 6
2017  
Curitiba
 
France
3–2  
Brazil
 
Canada
3–1  
United States
36 / 6

Medals summary

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Brazil97420
2  Italy83415
3  Russia35614
4  United States2136
5  France2114
6  Cuba1539
7  Serbia1315
8  Netherlands1113
9  Poland1012
10  FR Yugoslavia /
  Serbia and Montenegro
0224
11  Canada0011
  Soviet Union0011
Totals (12 entries)28282884

Most valuable player by edition

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Since Group system was introduced in 2014, statistics of only Group 1 Final Round are included, as this is the medal round.
  2. ^ Russia's total includes appearances as   Soviet Union and   CIS.
  3. ^ Serbia's total includes appearances as   Yugoslavia and   Serbia and Montenegro.

References

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