Qualification process for volleyball is the same for last few OG :
- World Cup is "additional qualification" for strongest teams
- each continent must be represented so nevermind who will be qualified earlier by World Cup one team per continent will be present in OG.
- continental qualifications cannot be done before World Cup or after international/world qualification because world qualification is the last step
- if one/two or even three teams from the same continent will be qualified by World Cup their places in continental qualification tournament will be replaced by next teams
(it must be checked additionally - acc. to continental championships ranking 2011 or latest FIVB ranking ?)
- continental tournaments are organized acc. to local federation (CEV for Europe) and their own system will be applied (so could be different)
(I remember tournament with direct competition like in WC with final game 2 best teams ranked highest after first stage. Also remember last competition with 2 groups and semi-finals / final) - sorry it's too early to say exactly
- world tournaments are organized by FIVB and their system is simply. Each team will play against each - higher in final ranking is qualified (in Asian tournaments - women 3 highest + best Asian, men - 1 highest + best Asian)
- teams (except hosts) for world qualifications are chosen acc. to FIVB ranking so for instance (women) Italy will be qualified through World Cup, Russia through continental tournament so the next two highest European teams will go to Japan for world qualification (Serbia, Poland, Germany, Netherlands or Turkey) !
yes, - Columbia or Venezuela can be qualified through continental tournament (Brazil and Argentina qualified in WC)
yes, - Serbia, Italy, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovakia , France, Finland can be together in continental tournament (max 8 teams)