New calendar 2025-2028 Olympic cycle

    the fivb decided to change the organisation of tournaments for the next olynpic cycle

    So now the world champs gonna be every 2 years at odd years at and with 32 teams (a bit too much,maybe 28?)

    Host country and last champs gonna be qualified as usual,also best 3 placed teams at continentals gonna have a ticket,and to complete the next 15 not qualified best ranked teams (ranking gonna be so important now)

    They gonna be put into 8 groups of 4 teams and best to advance


    Also the formula to qualify to next olympics gonna change


    5 continental champions of 2026 gonna qualify to LA,added to host country,3 best ranked team and 2027 world champs and 3 best fivb ranked team


    Big chance for canada to be at an OG

    For me it was ok that WCH was 1 for 4 years, but maybe I gonna change my mind when it will be continue. Maybe for a players it will not be ok, especially for european, where ECH are also imoprtant...

    You don't see football, basketball or even rugby holding their world championships every 2 years. This is a step down in terms of prestige.

    Quote from volleySrb

    handball is such a low level sport

    What do you mean low level sport?

    Quote from volleySrb

    its not same level as football, basketball or volleyball

    volleyball isn't same level as football/basketball except to us volleyball fans, don't ya think?


    What is level, though ? :lol:

    Quote from sitenoise

    volleyball isn't same level as football/basketball except to us volleyball fans, don't ya think?


    What is level, though ? :lol:

    Its not, but i didn't say it is. In general no, but women volleyball is more popular than any other women sports.


    Do you have friends that are handball fans? Do you remember some handball event in your town for example?


    You can research what team sports is most popular at olympics, and you will see that handball is not among top ones.

    Quote from volleySrb

    Its not, but i didn't say it is. In general no, but women volleyball is more popular than any other women sports.


    Do you have friends that are handball fans? Do you remember some handball event in your town for example?


    You can research what team sports is most popular at olympics, and you will see that handball is not among top ones.

    I didn't say anything about handball. My dad was a handball player but didn't make the OG

    Quote from volleySrb

    Do you have friends that are handball fans? Do you remember some handball event in your town for example?

    Men's Handball is bigger in Europe than volleyball actually, 4400 average attendance for CL games is amazing, top football clubs have sections in handball (Barcelona, PSG) while in volleyball they don't (or nowhere near on this level).


    Worldwide, volleyball has an edge due to Asia and Americas, but it's still weird to call handball a low-level sport from perspective of the European.

    Quote from Realista

    Men's Handball is bigger in Europe than volleyball actually, 4400 average attendance for CL games is amazing, top football clubs have sections in handball (Barcelona, PSG) while in volleyball they don't (or nowhere near on this level).


    Worldwide, volleyball has an edge due to Asia and Americas, but it's still weird to call handball a low-level sport from perspective of the European.

    I dont see it, this average is probably in scandinavia.


    You are from poland? Handball is more popular than volleyball there?


    In serbia you cannot hear anything about handball.


    Also just checked IG followers for handball and volleyball (even clubs) and is not even close.

    Quote from volleySrb

    You are from poland? Handball is more popular than volleyball there?

    Naah, we're much better in volleyball both historically and currently, so it's an obvious choice.


    But male handball is strong in Spain, Scandinavia, Balkans, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, France, Germany, Netherlands, recently Portugal, that's why average level of interest is higher in Europe in handball, at least male version, it's especially visible on club level.


    When Men's ECH in handball were organized in Serbia, average attendance was 6,400 from what I see.


    So yeah, you are right that volleyball is more 'global', but men's handball is in a better shape in Europe than volleyball easily, so it's hard to knock them as a sport.

    Women volleyball ECH in serbia had 22k attendance in 2021:)


    Handball is not existent in serbia, in media or people minds in general.


    For example, you can just guess how many more children train volleyball than handball in serbia.


    Also i live close to schools, and child courts and i never seen in my life children's playing handball, while you can see children's playing volleyball on daily bases in school yards.

    .

    So for me popularity for this 2 sports is not comparable at all.

    Quote from volleySrb

    Women volleyball ECH in serbia had 22k attendance in 2021 :)

    I'm talking about average attendance: avg attendance for ECH 2021 playoff games in Serbia was below 5k, including group phase it would be much worse.


    But I was never questioning that volleyball is more popular than handball in Serbia, so it's completely irrelevant. The point is even in Serbia average attendance for ECH was crazy good in men's handball, because handball is popular in more countries than volleyball (in Europe, obviously).


    I don't know viewership data, but considering that average attendance in halls in several competitions is on average twice as big in (men's) handball than in volleyball in Europe (men's Bundesliga has average attendance on a level of 5k, this is crazy for 18-team league from perspective of volleyball standards), and men's handball competition having big titular sponsor which volleyball does not have (CLs), I'm pretty confident in saying that men's handball is more popular in Europe than volleyball in both genders.


    But it's on several levels irrelevant as handball is not a good comp despite having WCHs biannually due to fact that there's no VNL out there. Women's handball is much less popular, so that's the point you can make, but I'm not going to analyze it that deeply nor a single person here actually cares, lol.

    Quote from volleySrb

    Do you have friends that are handball fans? Do you remember some handball event in your town for example?

    yes and yes!


    Handball quite popular if not more popular than volleyball, especially male version. Less popular doesn't mean low level anyways 🤦 otherwise volleyball is low level too considering it is less popular than football and basketball 😉

    So busier schedule for the national teams. They really want to tire these players.