FIVB Volleyball World League facts for kids

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FIVB Volleyball World League

Sport	Volleyball
Founded	1990
Ceased	2017
Replaced by	Nations League Challenger Cup
No. of teams	12 in Group 1 12 in Group 2 12 in Group 3
Continent	International (FIVB)
Last champion(s)	FRA (2nd title)
Most titles	BRA (9 titles)

The FIVB Volleyball World League was a big international volleyball competition for men. It happened every year. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) started it in 1990. It became one of the longest and most important volleyball events in the world.

There was also a similar competition for women called the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix. The World League was different from other big volleyball tournaments like the World Championship or the World Cup.

After 2017, the World League and World Grand Prix were replaced. New competitions took their place: the men's and women's Nations League, and the men's and women's Challenger Cup.

History of the World League
- How it Started
- Who Won the Most?
How the Games Were Played
Host Countries
Team Appearances
Results Summary
Medals Summary
Most Valuable Players (MVPs)
Images for kids
See also

History of the World League

How it Started

First FIVB World League logo

Second FIVB World League logo

The World League began in 1990. The FIVB wanted to make volleyball more popular around the world. They created this yearly competition to get more people interested in the sport. It was a big part of their plan to promote volleyball globally.

Who Won the Most?

In the 1990s, the team from Italy was super strong. They won the first three tournaments in 1990, 1991, and 1992. In 1993, Brazil, who were Olympic champions at the time, won the gold medal at home. But Italy quickly won again in 1994 and 1995.

In 1996, the Netherlands beat Italy in a very close game. This was a hint of what would happen at the Atlanta Olympic Games later that year. Italy won again in 1997. Then, Cuba won in 1998, and Italy took the title in 1999 and 2000. So, Italy was clearly the top team in the first 10 years of the World League. They won 8 out of 11 times!

Italy's winning streak slowed down in 2001. Brazil won their second gold medal, beating Italy easily. Brazil then became the dominant team in the early 2000s. They won many titles from 2003 to 2007, and again in 2009 and 2010. During this time, Brazil was also the World and Olympic Champion. Other teams like Russia (in 2002) and the United States (in 2008) also managed to win titles.

How the Games Were Played

The FIVB often changed the rules of the World League. They wanted to make the games more exciting and fair. But some main rules usually stayed the same:

Teams had to make sure their games were shown on TV and covered by local news.
The competition had at least two main parts. First, there was a "preliminary round" (also called the "Intercontinental Round"). Teams played games in different cities.
After that, there were "final rounds" held in one or more host countries.
In the preliminary round, teams were put into groups. Each team played four matches against every other team in its group. Two games were at home, and two were away. These games usually happened over a weekend.
The best teams from each group moved on to the final round. The number of teams that qualified depended on the total number of teams and the final round's setup.
The country hosting the final round automatically got a spot in the finals.
The FIVB tried different ways to play the final rounds. Sometimes it was a "Top Six" or "Top Four" format. For many years, they used a mixed format. Teams played in two smaller groups, and the top two from each group went on to play in semifinals and finals.
For the preliminary round, teams could choose from 19 players. For each weekend's games, coaches picked 14 players, including two players called "liberos." In the final rounds, only 14 players (including two liberos) were allowed.

Host Countries

Here are the countries that hosted the final rounds of the World League the most times:

Times hosted	Hosts	Year(s)
6	Italy	1991, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2014
6	Brazil	1993, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2015, 2017
4	Poland	2001, 2007, 2011, 2016
3	Argentina	1999, 2010, 2013
2	Netherlands	1996, 2000
2	Russia	1997, 2006
2	Serbia	2005, 2009
1	Japan	1990
1	Spain	2003
1	Bulgaria	2012

Team Appearances

Brazil and Italy were the only teams that played in every single World League tournament.

Team	Preliminary Round			Final Round
Team	App.	First Year	Last Year	App.	First Year	Last Year
BRA	28	1990	2017	25	1990	2017
ITA	28	1990	2017	22	1990	2016
RUS	26	1990	2017	22	1990	2017
CUB	26	1991	2016	15	1991	2012
JPN	24	1990	2017	1	2008	2008
FRA	22	1990	2017	7	2001	2017
NED	21	1990	2017	10	1990	2002
SRB	20	1997	2017	13	2000	2017
USA	20	1990	2017	11	1992	2017
BUL	20	1994	2017	10	1994	2013
POL	20	1998	2017	9	2001	2016
ARG	19	1996	2017	5	1999	2013
KOR	19	1991	2017	1	1995	1995
CHN	18	1990	2017	1	1996	1996
ESP	15	1995	2017	3	1999	2003
POR	14	1999	2017	–	–	–
GRE	13	1993	2017	1	2003	2003
GER	13	1992	2017	1	2012	2012
FIN	13	1993	2017	–	–	–
CAN	11	1991	2017	2	2013	2017
VEN	9	2001	2017	–	–	–
EGY	7	2006	2017	–	–	–
CZE	5	2003	2017	1	2003	2003
AUS	5	1999	2017	1	2014	2014
IRI	5	2013	2017	1	2014	2014
PUR	4	2011	2016	–	–	–
BEL	4	2014	2017	–	–	–
MEX	4	2014	2017	–	–	–
SVK	4	2014	2017	–	–	–
TUN	4	2014	2017	–	–	–
TUR	4	2014	2017	–	–	–
KAZ	3	2015	2017	–	–	–
MNE	3	2015	2017	–	–	–
TPE	2	2016	2017	–	–	–
QAT	2	2016	2017	–	–	–
SLO	2	2016	2017	–	–	–
AUT	1	2017	2017	–	–	–
EST	1	2017	2017	–	–	–

Team last allocated in Group 1 Team last allocated in Group 2 Team last allocated in Group 3 Team was inactive in the last World League

Results Summary

This table shows the winners and top teams for each year of the World League.

Year	Final host	Final			3rd place match			Teams IR / FR
Year	Final host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	3rd place	Score	4th place	Teams IR / FR
1990	Osaka	Italy	3–0	Netherlands	Brazil	3–1	Soviet Union	8 / 4
1991	Milan	Italy	3–0	Cuba	Soviet Union	3–1	Netherlands	10 / 4
1992	Genoa	Italy	3–1	Cuba	United States	3–1	Netherlands	12 / 4
1993	São Paulo	Brazil	3–0	Russia	Italy	3–0	Cuba	12 / 4
1994	Milan	Italy	3–0	Cuba	Brazil	3–2	Bulgaria	12 / 6
1995	Rio de Janeiro	Italy	3–1	Brazil	Cuba	3–2	Russia	12 / 6
1996	Rotterdam	Netherlands	3–2	Italy	Russia	3–2	Cuba	11 / 6
1997	Moscow	Italy	3–0	Cuba	Russia	3–0	Netherlands	12 / 6
1998	Milan	Cuba	Round-robin	Russia	Netherlands	Round-robin	Italy	12 / 4
1999	Mar del Plata	Italy	3–1	Cuba	Brazil	3–1	Russia	12 / 6
2000	Rotterdam	Italy	3–2	Russia	Brazil	3–0	Yugoslavia	12 / 6
2001	Katowice	Brazil	3–0	Italy	Russia	3–0	Yugoslavia	16 / 8
2002	Belo Horizonte / Recife	Russia	3–1	Brazil	Yugoslavia	3–1	Italy	16 / 8
2003	Madrid	Brazil	3–2	Serbia and Montenegro	Italy	3–1	Czech Republic	16 / 8
2004	Rome	Brazil	3–1	Italy	Serbia and Montenegro	3–0	Bulgaria	12 / 4
2005	Belgrade	Brazil	3–1	Serbia and Montenegro	Cuba	3–2	Poland	12 / 4
2006	Moscow	Brazil	3–2	France	Russia	3–0	Bulgaria	16 / 6
2007	Katowice	Brazil	3–1	Russia	United States	3–1	Poland	16 / 6
2008	Rio de Janeiro	United States	3–1	Serbia	Russia	3–1	Brazil	16 / 6
2009	Belgrade	Brazil	3–2	Serbia	Russia	3–0	Cuba	16 / 6
2010	Córdoba	Brazil	3–1	Russia	Serbia	3–2	Cuba	16 / 6
2011	Gdańsk–Sopot	Russia	3–2	Brazil	Poland	3–0	Argentina	16 / 8
2012	Sofia	Poland	3–0	United States	Cuba	3–2	Bulgaria	16 / 6
2013	Mar del Plata	Russia	3–0	Brazil	Italy	3–2	Bulgaria	18 / 6
2014	Florence	United States	3–1	Brazil	Italy	3–0	Iran	28 / 6
2015	Rio de Janeiro	France	3–0	Serbia	United States	3–0	Poland	32 / 6
2016	Kraków	Serbia	3–0	Brazil	France	3–0	Italy	36 / 6
2017	Curitiba	France	3–2	Brazil	Canada	3–1	United States	36 / 6

Medals Summary

This table shows which countries won the most medals (gold, silver, bronze) in the World League.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	BRA	9	7	4	20
2	ITA	8	3	4	15
3	RUS	3	5	6	14
4	USA	2	1	3	6
5	FRA	2	1	1	4
6	CUB	1	5	3	9
7	SRB	1	3	1	5
8	NED	1	1	1	3
9	POL	1	0	1	2
10	FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro	0	2	2	4
11	CAN	0	0	1	1
URS	0	0	1	1
Totals (12 entries)	28	28	28	84