Brazil-vs-France-2017WL-finals
The new format of both tournaments raised many controversies as it deleted all the other groups besides Group 1, which will consist of 16 teams, but also due to the unexplained criteria by which the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) decided to include some and exclude other teams from elite. It even caused Slovenian Federation to threaten FIVB with a lawsuit for not allowing them to compete in Group 1 of the World League despite their Men’s NT earned that right by winning Group 2 this year.
As “UOL” revealed on its blog “Saída de Rede”, out of the established 16 national teams in elite divisions of both tournaments, 12 will be permanent members, so-called “classified”, while the other four will be “challengers”. The criteria by which these “classified” teams gained the right to compete in the elite were a combination of factors such as their volleyball history, and specifically their history of playing the tournament, recent results, position in the rankings and infrastructure to host matches. Depending on their results in the tournament in 2018, the “challengers” status can be changed (they can stay or leave the competition).
Both the 2018 World League and World Grand Prix will have five weeks of Preliminary Round (in which every team will play 15 matches and will play against every single one of the participants) after which the six best teams will advance to the Final Six (hosts will be determined later). It’s already clear that these will be the longest-ever World League and World Grand Prix tournaments! Each country will host up to two weeks, but most countries will probably host not more than one.
Permanent or “classified” teams in the World League are Brazil, Italy, USA, Russia, Serbia, France, Argentina, Poland, Iran, Germany, Japan, and China. “Challengers” are Canada, Bulgaria, Australia, and Korea.
2018 World League Preliminary Round, pools:
Week 1:
Pool 1 – AUS, FRA, IRN, JPN; Pool 2 – USA, CHN, ARG, BUL; Pool 3 – RUS, KOR, CAN, POL; Pool 4 – GER, SRB, BRA, ITA.
Week 2:
Pool 1 – BUL, AUS, RUS, SRB; Pool 2 – JPN, KOR, USA, BRA; Pool 3 – ARG, IRN, CAN, ITA; Pool 4: POL, FRA, CHN, GER.
Week 3:
Pool 1 – CAN, AUS, USA, GER; Pool 2 – ITA, JPN, BUL, POL; Pool 3 – IRN, CHN, RUS, BRA; Pool 4 – SRB, ARG, KOR, FRA.
Week 4:
Pool 1 – ITA, AUS, CHN, KOR; Pool 2 – ARG, GER, JPN, RUS; Pool 3 – SRB, USA, IRN, POL; Pool 4 – BUL, FRA, CAN, BRA.
Week 5:
Pool 1 – ARG, AUS, POL, BRA; Pool 2 – JPN, CAN, CHN, SRB; Pool 3 – IRN, GER, BUL, KOR; Pool 4 – ITA, USA, FRA, RUS.
Permanent or “classified” teams in the World Grand Prix are Brazil, China, Serbia, USA, Russia, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Korea and Thailand. “Challengers” are Poland, Belgium, Dominican Republic and Argentina.
2018 World Grand Prix Preliminary Round, pools:
Week 1:
Pool 1 – NED, ARG, THA, RUS; Pool 2 – KOR, DOM, CHN, BEL; Pool 3 – USA, ITA, POL, TUR; Pool 4 – BRA, JPN, GER, SRB
Week 2:
Pool 1 – BEL, NED, USA, JPN; Pool 2 – RUS, ITA, KOR, GER; Pool 3 – CHN, THA, POL, SRB; Pool 4 – TUR, ARG, DOM, BRA
Week 3:
Pool 1 – POL, NED, KOR, BRA; Pool 2 – SRB, RUS, BEL, TUR; Pool 3 – THA, DOM, USA, GER; Pool 4 – JPN, CHN, ITA, ARG
Week 4:
Pool 1 – SRB, NED, DOM, ITA; Pool 2 – CHN, BRA, RUS, USA; Pool 3 – JPN, KOR, THA, TUR; Pool 4 – BEL, ARG, POL, GER
Week 5:
Pool 1 – CHN, NED, TUR, GER; Pool 2 – RUS, Pol, DOM, JPN; Pool 3 – THA, BRA, BEL, ITA; Pool 4 – SRB, KOR, ARG, USA.
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