Qatar, along with Chinese Taipei and European Championship runners-up Slovenia, are all set to make their debut in the 27th edition of the FIVB World League.
This edition of the tournament will feature a record 36 teams and 54 matches around the world.
The 12 teams that have qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be fine-tuning their skills at the volleyball world’s most important annual competition from June 16 to July 17.
Given the importance of this year’s Summer Games, it seems only fitting that this year’s FIVB World League will kick off at the new Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro.
Record winners Brazil take on Iran today in the opening round of the competition. The Olympic hosts, who are no strangers to success, have now had to wait six years for what would be a historic tenth title in the FIVB World League after failing to reach the semi-finals last year in Rio.
France starts its title defence in Sydney with three matches against hosts Australia, Italy and Belgium. Following a week off after their successful Olympic qualification in Tokyo, the team set off on the long journey south last Sunday.
Last year’s FIVB World League MVP Earvin N’Gapeth is replaced by Julien Lyneel.
Two strong newcomers to the FIVB World League face each other in Ljubljana, in the form of Slovenia and Qatar. Tunisia and Venezuela will also be in action in the Slovenian capital.
The third World League newcomers, Chinese Taipei, take on hosts Greece, Puerto Rico and Kazakhstan in Kozani, Greece.
Olympic champions Russia, on the other hand, will count on 2.18-metre tall Dmitriy Muserskiy for their opening tournament which takes place in Kaliningrad from Friday to Sunday. The Russian giant missed his team’s successful Olympic qualification campaign. Playing on home soil, Russia will take on Serbia, who finished runners-up at last year’s FIVB World League, as well as Bulgaria and Poland.
As hosts, the world champions from Poland are guaranteed a place in the World League Group 1 Finals. They will be joined by five teams who will qualify over the three weeks of Preliminary Round matches.
The action also gets underway in Group 2 this week. Canada and Egypt — two of the teams that have qualified for the Olympic Games — will play in the Preliminary Round tournament in Ceske Budejovice.
“After making history by qualifying for the Olympics, we obviously want to make it to the Final Round of the FIVB World League too,” said Canada’s head coach Glenn Hoag.
Canada are certainly among the favourites to do so, but the twelve teams in this group are very evenly matched.
China, who, along with hosts the Czech Republic, are also in action at this Preliminary Round tournament, will also be competing for honours in Group 2.
Cuba, who have qualified for the Olympics, will play hosts Japan, Finland and South Korea at the Preliminary Round tournament in Osaka.
In Izmir, hosts Turkey, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia go head to head. Portugal host the Group 2 Finals on July 9-10 in Matoshinhos. They will be joined at the Finals by the top three teams from the two Preliminary Round weeks.
Exactly the same format will be used to determine the participants in the Group 3 Finals on July 1-2 in Frankfurt. Hosts Germany are favourites to win on their return to the FIVB World League, having finished third at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in 2014.