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.
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 = 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 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, 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. For some years now,
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 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 Medals summary
MVP by edition 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