FIVB VNL Challenger Cup

  • has anyone found any official website about the challenger cup? schedule, results, rosters, etc.? i can't find it on the fivb website and wikipedia only has skeletal info. there's already matches uploaded on YT but no official info that i can find.

  • A brand new wikipedia page - so I missed Kasachstan winning the Asian qualification tournament. It looks, that Switzerland won the host berth by hosting in Lausanne. So three are known now (Puerto Rico, Kazakhstan and Switzerland), waiting for African tournament winner to go against Peru and the two European finalists of Golden European League.

  • Current state: Peru was chosen as host (in Lausanne/SUI? strange) and will be directly in the playoff to determine the challenger of the worst team of VNL. Therefore second place team Columbia from South American Qualifier waits for still unknown (even the competition) African qualifier to play for the next berth. Kazakhstan won the Asian qualifier and will also be on board; as well Puerto Rico, which won NORCECA qualifier against Canada. Still missing are the both finalists of European Golden League (competition in progress).

  • stefan, so the final tournament has 6 teams ?


    how will europe determine their 2 teams, if there's 3 pools?


    Yes, there are 6 in the final challenge tournament. Europe: Hungary is host of Final Four European League (Golden), the best teams of all three pools aside Hungary will qualify for the semis, yesterday also Czech and Finlands teams qualified for sure, and Bulgaria has a clear edge against the Azeri team in the third pool regarding the last match (not in the standing, there is only a small margin). The two semi winners, i.e. the two finalists, will participate in the final 6 challenge tournament.

  • Finland is not qualified yet. They need at least 1 point from last match in Hungary, otherwise bot Bulgaria and Azerbaijan (one as best 2nd) will qualify (unless surprising defeat in last round)


    I thought one from each group would qualify plus the host

  • Today semis were executed, and the both finalists of Golden European League are Bulgaria and Hungary, and so the two teams from Europe going to Challenger playoffs.

  • so Hungary beat Czech R in straight sets, interesting!


    which team is the fav ? Bul or Hun ? i would say Bulgaria with a full-roster...but they must be competing with a younger/renewed lineup currently and this makes it unpredictable to me ..also its Hungary's home-court

  • If Hungary wins Argentina has a good chance in beating them ... I really don`t want to see Hungary in the VNL.


    I wish somehow Belgium would be replaced.... they did not even play with their main roster and did not even host any round are clearly they would not even be able to attract enough fans. Puerto Rico could be better addition as they are no worse than Belgium, Argentina. D. Republic...and last year`s GP they attracted around 5-8K fans per game.

  • If Hungary wins Argentina has a good chance in beating them ... I really don`t want to see Hungary in the VNL.


    I wish somehow Belgium would be replaced.... they did not even play with their main roster and did not even host any round are clearly they would not even be able to attract enough fans. Puerto Rico could be better addition as they are no worse than Belgium, Argentina. D. Republic...and last year`s GP they attracted around 5-8K fans per game.


    i agree on HUngary...Bulgary with full roster is a good team for VNL


    btw..how could Belgium attract fans without hosting any legs/weeks ?
    i like Thai team but Belgium has done better than Thailand and Korea so far.. what about to replace one of them ? Korea without KYK is really weak but Belgium without some experienced players like Hecke,Leys,Heyrman,Albrect etc.. not that bad

  • Thailand and Korea cannot be replaced as they are among the "core teams" with guaranteed places.


    Belgium seems to be going through a generation change, which is a bit weird considering most of their key players aren't that old. I agree that not hosting a tournament was in poor form, but I think that with this squad they've done about as well as they could. They definitely were not the weakest team of the competition.