2019 Volleyball Nations League (VNL)

    The new challenger and winner of the 2018 Challenger Cup Portugal replaces South Korea in the 2019 VNL edition. The weakest of the 4 challengers, namely Portugal, Bulgaria, Canada, and Australia, will be relegated. This time, unlike the 2018 edition, all teams will have to travel to other continents during the preliminary stage. Some more, some less, of course. China, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Iran will each host 2 tournaments.

    Quote from YavorD

    This time, unlike the 2018 edition, all teams will have to travel to other continents during the preliminary stage. Some more, some less, of course.

    For the german team that means travelling Germany -> China -> North America -> Europe -> South America -> Europe within 30 days. I guess its no hyperbole to say that they will spend more time in planes and waiting rooms than on the volleyball court....:white:

    Pools 14 and 18 look crazy in theory. 3, 6 and 11 look fun as well.


    I am curious to see how Portugal will perform -- there is a lot of time to go until the VNL starts, but I am still skeptical they can avoid relegation.


    Poor Germany will have to travel like crazy, From China to Canada to France to Brazil and then finally Germany.

    Quote from TimHH

    For the german team that means travelling Germany -> China -> North America -> Europe -> South America -> Europe within 30 days. I guess its no hyperbole to say that they will spend more time in planes and waiting rooms than on the volleyball court....:white:

    It has always been the case with most teams, the calendar is never evenly distributed, unfortunately, and it often pays off in the end. This is why I made the comparison to the 2018 edition. This year, France only played in Europe and were supposed to be way more fresh than the rest. In 2019, each team will have to cross oceans/continents at least once, which looks better and fairer on paper than in 2018.

    Quote from saishuu

    Poor Germany will have to travel like crazy, From China to Canada to France to Brazil and then finally Germany.

    Just for the sake of comparison, Bulgaria's schedule doesn't look much more appealing. Argentina -> China -> Bulgaria -> Brazil -> Bulgaria. I can already predict that the B team will be flying to Brazil in the 4th week during the summer :)

    Quote from YavorD

    Just for the sake of comparison, Bulgaria's schedule doesn't look much more appealing. Argentina -> China -> Bulgaria -> Brazil -> Bulgaria. I can already predict that the B team will be flying to Brazil in the 4th week during the summer :)


    I haven't checked other teams schedules but Bulgarias' surely does look ambitious too.


    But whatever, we should all be happy to participate in the greatest tournament of all times under the guidance of the most wonderful federation and her dear leader, grab some ranking points and maybe money and for the rest, just stfu.....

    I heard some rumors about Iran withdrawing from the VNL for different reasons, first financial problems. 2nd USA being host of the finals and 3rd massive problems inside the Iran Volleyball Federation but now I see they didn't withdraw but they will host 2 weekends !


    and unlike 2018 when Iran had a very tough schedule. 2019 is different China > Japan > Iran > Iran > Bulgaria ! no travel to American continent !

    If they want to continue with this format so much, the least they could do is have the best challenger team become a safe team for the next edition, and the worst safe team (in this case, China) should become a Challenger.


    But of course, buissness is buissness.

    can FIVB make the travel more reasonable when it decides the hosting destinations ?


    take Team Japan as example, their travel map this year :

    Serbia - Japan - Bulgaria - USA - German


    why Europe then back home and go to Europe again then go to USA then back to Europe again


    it make the teams spend more budget on travelling and more time in airplanes and trains not in training court


    very terrible decision


    i hope FIVB will notice that and improve their allocation.

    Part of the challenge with the schedule is trying to take into account when each country can host (some don’t). For Japan, the men and women will play in the same venue in the same week. Men first (2nd round) then women (4th round).


    The newer Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 planes allow flights to fly longer point to point, so better for all involved. However the travel will always with a 5 week long global league.


    Any trip to Brazil or Argentina from Europe or Asia is torture. The USA women traveled from Jiangmen China to Santa Fe, Argentina. Fly from Guangzhou to Istanbul to São Paulo to Buenos Aires and then bus. 47 hours one way. Video of the trip

    Quote from brahmin

    Part of the challenge with the schedule is trying to take into account when each country can host (some don’t). For Japan, the men and women will play in the same venue in the same week. Men first (2nd round) then women (4th round).


    The newer Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 planes allow flights to fly longer point to point, so better for all involved. However the travel will always with a 5 week long global league.


    Any trip to Brazil or Argentina from Europe or Asia is torture. The USA women traveled from Jiangmen China to Santa Fe, Argentina. Fly from Guangzhou to Istanbul to São Paulo to Buenos Aires and then bus. 47 hours one way. Video of the trip

    Of course It's challenge and complicated to coordinate and allocate so many teams and host cities in 5 weeks.


    But at least they need to do their best.


    As we all know USA will host VNL finals 3 years in a row, have FIVB ever thought that the pool USA host can arrange in Week 5 instead of Week 4. So at least the home team （USA） will not travel back and forth in last 2 weeks.


    Also since Canada, Brazil and Argentina is more close to USA, could those countries to get more possibility host the pool in week 5 ?


    With over 8 hosting countries in Europe, FIVB should arrange 2 weeks that all 16 teams to compete in Europe.


    It's very difficult for athletes to keep in good condition during long distance travel. Without good performance, no one wants to watch volleyball.


    It eventually will hurt volleyball itself.

    Do remember, some of the roster do not travel to all of the matches. Also do not forget that you have to play each country. So even good ideas, some of which are used, putting USA and Canada or Brazil and Argentina together for two rounds (Canada hosts first, then travels to USA for second week).


    So in last year's VNL, Canada hosted Germany, Australia and USA in Week 3. For Week 4, USA returned home to Chicago, Canada flew to Bulgaria, Germany returned home, and Australia went to South Korea. Iran (from Russia), Poland (from Japan) and Serbia (from France) flew to the USA.


    Even if you wanted to put them together, you don't play a team multiple times (unlike the old World League), so the FIVB is kind of stuck with the complete round robin. If they went back to the old ways, then you could see a regional grouping (they never really did it before).

    Do you guys know which Chinese city will host week 2?

    Thanks a lot