2015 FIVB World League

  • Rumours link the finals of the 2015 FIVB World League with Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. If it turns out to be true, perhaps it will be a chance to make some Olympic preparation.

  • FIVB just announced the groups


    Group 1
    Pool A: Italy, Brazil, Serbia, Australia
    Pool B: USA, Poland, Russia, Iran


    Group 2
    Pool C: Bulgaria, Cuba, Canada, Argentina
    Pool D: France, Germany, South Korea, Czech Republic
    Pool E: Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Netherlands


    Group 3
    Pool F: Tunisia, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Montenegro
    Pool G: China, Mexico, Slovakia, Greece
    Pool H: Egypt, Japan, Spain, Kazakhstan

  • Group 2
    Pool C: Bulgaria, Cuba, Canada, Argentina
    Pool D: France, Germany, South Korea, Czech Republic
    Pool E: Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Netherlands


    A lot of travelling for Bulgaria. With Pool E being a complete "european group", thats not really understandable :?:


    Anyway, there will probably a lot of teams this year who won't take this competition serious. World Cup, ECH, and all this after a WCH and almost no preparation for the club season. Players should get a real rest :teach:


    I don't see Germany taking a serious approach to first division as well. I even would prefer playing a european league. Travelling to South Korea and playing two unimportant games with probably a B or C team is just a waste of money.


  • A lot of travelling for Bulgaria. With Pool E being a complete "european group", thats not really understandable :?:


    Anyway, there will probably a lot of teams this year who won't take this competition serious. World Cup, ECH, and all this after a WCH and almost no preparation for the club season. Players should get a real rest :teach:


    I don't see Germany taking a serious approach to first division as well. I even would prefer playing a european league. Travelling to South Korea and playing two unimportant games with probably a B or C team is just a waste of money.

    A lot of things are not really understandable when it comes to FIVB, CEV or any other international federation. As far as I know, Bulgaria received the right to host the Final Four in Division II, so I doubt they are going to send the A-team to North and South America. I don't know if it's official or not, but the three visits we are going to have in Cuba, Argentina and Canada (mentioned here in random order), respectively, are meant to be scheduled in consecutive weekends. It will be good for the B-team. At least the time difference between those three visits won't be that big. But again, Bulgaria have only themselves to blame. They could've avoided the participation in Division II :)

  • Still no Slovenia I see. :huh: Sucks. I gotta admit I didn't even know Kazakhstan had a male team worth of competing at this level. But nice to see Egypt, Montenegro and Greece in Group III along with Japan, where they rightfully belong.


    Group II looks really interesting with plenty of candidates to win now and won't be centered around France and Belgium (not counting dark horse Australia) anymore. Bulgaria will definitely not have an easy time. Meanwhile, in Group I, Pool B looks crazy. :cheesy: Although we'll have to see how USA deals with Matt's possible absence. In Pool A, Brazil will probably have a much easier time advancing.

  • Still no Slovenia I see. :huh: Sucks. I gotta admit I didn't even know Kazakhstan had a male team worth of competing at this level. But nice to see Egypt, Montenegro and Greece in Group III along with Japan, where they rightfully belong.


    Group II looks really interesting with plenty of candidates to win now and won't be centered around France and Belgium (not counting dark horse Australia) anymore. Bulgaria will definitely not have an easy time. Meanwhile, in Group I, Pool B looks crazy. :cheesy: Although we'll have to see how USA deals with Matt's possible absence. In Pool A, Brazil will probably have a much easier time advancing.

    We have four new teams, Montenegro and Greece as European League finalists, Egypt as African Champion and Kazakhstan from AVC Cup. but I'm a little confused since India finished 2nd (and higher than Kazakhstan), and they have a better team but maybe they are not interested ?!


    and you are right about Kazakhstan's level. they finished 10th in Asian Games (without Australia)


    as for Iran, I will be happy as long as they stay in elite group, and I think it won't be a problem this year because we have Australia in Pool A. even though Iran qualified for final 6 last year but it was only because of home matches. The away record (including final 6 in Italy) was terrible 2-8 ! (I should say 1-8, that win against Brazil in final 6 doesn't count). winning home matches or at least some of them is probably enough for Iran to stay in elite Group.

  • Rumours link the finals of the 2015 FIVB World League with Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. If it turns out to be true, perhaps it will be a chance to make some Olympic preparation.


    Confirmed. The Finals will be in Rio de Janeiro, the dates are 14-19 July.


  • Yop, so it seems. Why did Germany drop out? Nothing in their media.

    Huh, surprising news but, as Yavor sais, no further information here yet. Probably tomorrow.......


    I assume, the coaching staff decided that it is better to give the main players a real rest after a long WC and a tough club season. ECH and Olympic Qualification are by far more important and sending a B/C team around the world is just a waste of money.


    I hope that doesn't backfire in the sense that FIVB might feel offended but personally i don't care too much. For me, the competition lost completely the thrill with not playing the "big teams" anymore.

  • If true, whats written in below article (italian), it looks like Germany will play European Games in Baku instead of World League 8o


    http://www.olimpiazzurra.com/2…biano-i-gironi-e-litalia/


    Yes, there was an article in L'Equipe couple of days ago as they were the first ones to write about it. Apparently Laurent Tillie asked FIVB for changing the schedule, so his team could play Japan and Korea back to back weekends.

  • Yes, there was an article in L'Equipe couple of days ago as they were the first ones to write about it. Apparently Laurent Tillie asked FIVB for changing the schedule, so his team could play Japan and Korea back to back weekends.


    It is a bit strange that there are absolutely no news so far concerning this matter. Neither from the federation nor any other news. ?(

  • An article on http://www.volleyball.de is trying to explain some reasons behind Germany's withdrawal:


    http://volleyball.de/nc/news/d…er-zu-den-european-games/


    The main reason is said to be, that due to FIVBs changement of olympic qualification mode, european ranking is now more important than the world ranking. Therefore, Germany will play with a competitive squad on European Games in Baku in order to reach the highest possible position on CEV ranking.


    According to the article, it is expected that some other european teams will act in the same way and send good teams to Baku.

  • Not Bulgaria, European games may be more important, but World League brings more money and Lazarov is all about the money. We will be with team A for the World League. And don't think in a minute that the players will see something from this money!

  • Definitely not Bulgaria. Not next year at least, according to Plamen Konstantinov. All I know about the volleyball tournament at these European Games is that the CEV ranking is going to be applied when sending invitations, no qualifiers involved, because it's the first tournament of this kind. Bulgaria will participate, the rumours say probably with the B team because winning the second division of the World League, whose finals will be in Sofia, is much more important at the moment. Money aspect aside, this time I also find it quite logical.


    Does CEV Ranking exist?

    I am almost sure such exists even if I doubt I can give you a link to it. Will post it if I find it.

  • Does CEV Ranking exist?

    http://ebook.cev.lu/competitions/rankings/index.html#5
    The CEV ranking was already applied for the european participants for World Cup 2015.


    Concerning the "money issue" i am quite sure that probably most of the federations, but for sure germany, rather make a loss in World League than earning money. That might "helped" the german federation in their decision to withdraw for 2015 World League.