FIVB World League

FIVB World League

Current season or competition: 2011 FIVB World League
Sport	Volleyball
Founded	1990
No. of teams	16
Continent	International (FIVB)
Most recent champion(s)	Russia (2nd)
Most titles	Brazil (9)

The FIVB 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. In 2006, $20 million dollars in prize money were distributed amongst 16 participating teams from 5 continents. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitions, the FIVB World Championship and the FIVB World Cup.

History

Origins

Old 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 FIVB 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 to $13 million dollars - 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 competitivity 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.

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: Volleyball World League Results

Year	Host		Final				3rd place match
			Champions	Score	Runners-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
1990 Details	Osaka		Italy	3–0	Netherlands		Brazil	3–1	Soviet Union
1991 Details	Milan		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Soviet Union	3–1	Netherlands
1992 Details	Genoa		Italy	3–1	Cuba		United States	3–1	Netherlands
1993 Details	São Paulo		Brazil	3–0	Russia		Italy	3–0	Cuba
1994 Details	Milan		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Brazil	3–2	Bulgaria
1995 Details	Rio de Janeiro		Italy	3–1	Brazil		Cuba	3–2	Russia
1996 Details	Rotterdam		Netherlands	3–2	Italy		Russia	3–2	Cuba
1997 Details	Moscow		Italy	3–0	Cuba		Russia	3–0	Netherlands
1998 Details	Milan		Cuba		Russia		Netherlands		Italy
1999 Details	Mar del Plata		Italy	3–1	Cuba		Brazil	3–1	Russia
2000 Details	Rotterdam		Italy	3–2	Russia		Brazil	3–0	Yugoslavia
2001 Details	Katowice		Brazil	3–0	Italy		Russia	3–0	Yugoslavia
2002 Details	Belo Horizonte		Russia	3–1	Brazil		Yugoslavia	3–1	Italy
2003 Details	Madrid		Brazil	3–2	Serbia and Montenegro		Italy	3–1	Czech Republic
2004 Details	Rome		Brazil	3–1	Italy		Serbia and Montenegro	3–0	Bulgaria
2005 Details	Belgrade		Brazil	3–1	Serbia and Montenegro		Cuba	3–2	Poland
2006 Details	Moscow		Brazil	3–2	France		Russia	3–0	Bulgaria
2007 Details	Katowice		Brazil	3–1	Russia		United States	3–1	Poland
2008 Details	Rio de Janeiro		United States	3–1	Serbia		Russia	3–1	Brazil
2009 Details	Belgrade		Brazil	3–2	Serbia		Russia	3–0	Cuba
2010 Details	Córdoba		Brazil	3–1	Russia		Serbia	3–2	Cuba
2011 Details	Gdańsk / Sopot		Russia	3–2	Brazil		Poland	3–0	Argentina
2012 Details	Sofia

Notes

Medals summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	9	3	4	16
2	Italy	8	3	2	13
3	Russia*	2	5	7	14
4	Cuba	1	5	2	8
5	Netherlands	1	1	1	3
6	United States	1	0	2	3
7	Serbia^	0	4	3	7
8	France	0	1	0	1
9	Poland	0	0	1	1
Total		22	22	22	66

* = FIVB considers Russia as the inheritor of the records of Soviet Union and CIS.

^ = FIVB considers Serbia as the inheritor of the records of SFR Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.

MVP by edition

• 1990 – Italy – Andrea Zorzi
• 1991 – Italy – Andrea Zorzi
• 1992 – Italy – Lorenzo Bernardi
• 1993 – Brazil – Giovane Gavio
• 1994 – Italy – Andrea Giani
• 1995 – Russia – Dmitriy Fomin
• 1996 – Italy – Lorenzo Bernardi
• 1997 – Netherlands – Guido Görtzen
• 1998 – Cuba – Oswaldo Hernández
• 1999 – Cuba – Oswaldo Hernández
• 2000 – Italy – Andrea Sartoretti

• 2001 – Yugoslavia – Ivan Miljković
• 2002 – Yugoslavia – Ivan Miljković
• 2003 – Serbia and Montenegro – Ivan Miljković
• 2004 – Italy – Andrea Sartoretti
• 2005 – Serbia and Montenegro – Ivan Miljković
• 2006 – Brazil – Gilberto Godoy Filho
• 2007 – Brazil – Ricardo Garcia
• 2008 – United States – Lloy Ball
• 2009 – Brazil – Sérgio Dutra Santos
• 2010 – Brazil – Murilo Endres
• 2011 – Russia – Maxim Mikhaylov

See also

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

External links

• 2011 FIVB World League at the FIVB.org