All eyes will be on Italy from September 23 to 28, 2014
Next year’s Championship will mark the first time that Italy has hosted the women’s edition of the event having organised the men’s tournament in 2010 and 1978. Italy has also hosted many women’s competitions in the past including the FIVB Junior World Championships in 1985, four European Championships (1971, 1991, 1999 and 2011) and three finals of the FIVB Grand Prix (2003, 2004, 2006).
The FIVB’s premier event for women’s volleyball will see a total of 24 teams divided into four pools of six teams for the first round, which starts on September 23 with hosts Italy placed in Pool A followed by the 11 best world-ranked teams placed in the first, second and third rows starting from Pool B using the serpentine system. The 12 remaining teams will be divided into three groups on the basis of the FIVB world ranking and placed in the fourth, fifth and sixth rows according to a drawing of lots.
The first round of the competition will be a round robin system over five days – three matches per day – with four cities (Rome, Trieste, Bari and Verona) hosting a pool each.
The top four teams of each pool will advance to the second round (in Bari, Trieste, Verona and Modena), where the 16 teams will be split into two pools of eight (top two of Pool A and B, third and fourth of Pool C and Pool D), with the top three of each pool advancing to the third round.
The top three teams from the two second-round pools will advance to the third round with the winners, placed in each pool, while the second and third will be drawn.
The third and final round will consist of a round robin system with the top two teams of each pool advancing to the semifinals before the final takes place in Milan on October 12.
Alongside Italy, two time defending champions Russia and Germany recently qualified for the 2014 World Championship, after taking first and second place respectively at the CEV European Championship. Thailand and Japan also won their place at the World Championships next year after qualifying through the Asian Women’s Final Qualification Tournament.
In the 2010 edition of the tournament, Russia won their second straight FIVB Women’s World Championship title, defeating Olympic champions Brazil 3-2 (21-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11) in a five-set marathon to win the gold medal in front of a full house of 12,000 fans at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo. Italy finished fifth in that tournament after beating Turkey in straight sets (25-23, 25-20, 25-21).
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