2017 FIVB World League

I think the news should be Montenegro not Myanmar.

And, how about pan american cup ranking that FIVB told that it was qualification tournament for WL WGP. Both VEN and PUR didn't compete.

AVC cup is nothing, now?

No Cuba in WL 2017 !

I do like the new format (16 and 17), but there is one thing that I would love to change. Each team in the top Group gets a home weekend.

USA, Canada and Brazil don't get home games, are you kidding me?

So the current #1 and #2 teams don't get to play at home. Just bleeping dumb.

Come on, guys, there are very few reasons why this format is better than some previous ones. Because we know that they enjoy changing it on a yearly basis. The only real benefit is the shortened length of the tournament. Any other aspect could fail miserably. And if previously you still had to travel across the globe, you would still have a weekend or two in normal conditions to fix bad results, now you may not necessarily have that chance. It is a long list of valid reasons why this format is bad and unfair and that's it.

As for USA and Brazil not hosting matches in 2017. I could agree about USA but Brazil hosted pretty much everything recently, no one would mind a break. From a neutral perspective. There were teams who could not host anything in 2016, so we have to live with it.

Quote from arman

"participating teams will have to feature eight players out of 14 from the last World League and six players out of 12 from the last Olympic Games. Teams will register 21 players six weeks before the beginning of the competition, bringing that list down to 18 players four weeks before the beginning of the competition and down to 14 players by May 31."

Can someone translate this for me? last world league contained 18 players not 14, and if I'm not mistaken they are saying teams must attend the whole world league with the same 14 players!!

Fivb is setting a new record in stupidity.

Fortunately, Fivb hasn't been stupid to a level that they demand 10 players who take part in the last World League to play in the Olympics.

Quote from arman

"participating teams will have to feature eight players out of 14 from the last World League and six players out of 12 from the last Olympic Games. Teams will register 21 players six weeks before the beginning of the competition, bringing that list down to 18 players four weeks before the beginning of the competition and down to 14 players by May 31."

Can someone translate this for me? last world league contained 18 players not 14, and if I'm not mistaken they are saying teams must attend the whole world league with the same 14 players!!

Fivb is setting a new record in stupidity.

To avoid Team B, Team C and Team DEFG..., FIVB has been mader and mader.

Quote from YavorD

Come on, guys, there are very few reasons why this format is better than some previous ones. Because we know that they enjoy changing it on a yearly basis. The only real benefit is the shortened length of the tournament. Any other aspect could fail miserably. And if previously you still had to travel across the globe, you would still have a weekend or two in normal conditions to fix bad results, now you may not necessarily have that chance. It is a long list of valid reasons why this format is bad and unfair and that's it.

I overall agree with you. Of course it's good that it's shortened (I thought last year they adopted it because of the OG coming), but it's impossibile with this formula to offer equality (or at least try to do that, because we see how well it worked the 'equal' division of the pools at the last OG -.-') to all the team.
It could be adjusted with a F8 instead of a F6, may be.
And it's really sad that few teams don't get to be host, I didn't noticed it Poor USA (Brazil had his chances lately, but still it's a pity because there volleyball is really followed).

Quote from arman

"participating teams will have to feature eight players out of 14 from the last World League and six players out of 12 from the last Olympic Games. Teams will register 21 players six weeks before the beginning of the competition, bringing that list down to 18 players four weeks before the beginning of the competition and down to 14 players by May 31."

Can someone translate this for me? last world league contained 18 players not 14, and if I'm not mistaken they are saying teams must attend the whole world league with the same 14 players!!

OMG, it seems so Or may be it's just for the F6? but considering the dates it doesn't seem so...
BTW, if they would have put this rule after London 2012, Italy would have been in big troubles...

The new format is so much better, the older one was not only boring but stupid. Playing 4 times with same team never made sense.

They were saying Brazil had plans to play the WL in a stadium. And I read Brazil wants to host the Finals.

But the CBV ended last year in big debit, some caused by hosting WL finals in 2015 and hosting WL and GP preliminaries, but rumors of where the money went are going around.

And Brazil just hosted the OG, they don't really need to host anything in 2017.

I just did some math for the 12 Teams in Group 1. I took the FIVB World Rankings after the Olympics and added the numbers together to show which teams would have the toughest schedule. (2.5 is Poland and USA ((2+3)/2) combined as they are tied for 2nd)

Lowest numbers mean hardest schedules
1. Bulgaria 48.5 (Brazil 2x, Argentina 2x)
2T. Poland 51.5 (Brazil 2x, Iran 2x)
2T. Iran 51.5 (Poland 2x)
4. Russia 58.5 (USA 2x, France 2x)
5. Italy 62.0 (France 2x)
6. Belgium 64.5 (Canada 2x, Serbia 2x)
7T. USA 68.5 (Russia 2x)
7T. France 68.5 (Russia 2x, Italy 2x)
9. Brazil 72.0 (Poland 2x, Bulgaria 2x)
10. Canada 81.0 (Belgium 2x)
11. Serbia 82.5 (Argentina 2x, Belgium 2x)
12. Argentina 92.0 (Serbia 2x, Bulgaria 2x)

I just realized that Austria were invited to take Puerto Rico's place in the 3rd division Why Austria? And not the 2016 EL silver medallists Macedonia, for instance? These criteria... Funny, now the super shiny and elitist World League will have teams that cannot make it to the ECH final round. Otherwise, it will be a debut participation for Estonia.

I think Macedonia didn't get invitation due conditions they simply cannot fullfil. They had a tough last summer due some internal problems on relation Federation - several players, training conditions but the biggest problem is lack of money.

I'm really surprised to see Austria in WL as they simply doesnt have quality even for 3rd Group. In order to avoid some embarrasing moments Austrian Federation appointed Stelian Moculescu as a new head coach. I've really big respect for Romanian coach as Warm wasn't the best choice (results showing that) but how much can Moculescu do with average players, even in European league terms, is a mystery to me. I see them as a weaker team comparing to the most NT's in 3rd Group.

Does anyone know why Cuba gave up on participation?

Quote from Kaziyski

I'm really surprised to see Austria in WL as they simply doesnt have quality even for 3rd Group. In order to avoid some embarrasing moments Austrian Federation appointed Stelian Moculescu as a new head coach. I've really big respect for Romanian coach as Warm wasn't the best choice (results showing that) but how much can Moculescu do with average players, even in European league terms, is a mystery to me. I see them as a weaker team comparing to the most NT's in 3rd Group.

As far as i understood, Michael Warm will remain coach of the Austrian NT, and Moculescu's job will rather be a kind of sports director and supervisor/advisor. Funnily, a big part of his job is going to be, to take care of Beach Volleyball. You can already say that, obviously, he enjoys that part of his new job very much.

LOL

I read on Austrian Federation site that new head coach is Moculescu

http://volleynet.at/News/All/2017/01/0000091168

Brazil's Curitiba will host the World League Finals July 4-8 according the Italian Federation website.