Now that the Nations League for 2018 has started, you can never be too early to plan for next year’s VNL. The FIVB has created a modified “relegation qualification” process that involves five different continental regions, and we will discuss a little about each below. Each of these qualifying regions involve teams that are not already in the VNL.
QUALIFYING REGIONS
- Asian Volleyball Confederation
- African Confederation-South American Confederation winner
- European Confederation League, top two advance
- NORCECA
- Host country
Each of the bullets listed above will send the winner of each region to the final 6, with the exception of the CEV, which has their own league that will send the top two. The countries in each region are as follows:
ASIAN VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION
- Fiji
- Hong Kong (host)
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Mongolia
- New Zealand
- Sri Lanka
- Uzbekistan
The two pools of four will play from July 30 to August 5. The winner will qualify for the Challenger’s Cup.
AFRICAN VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION
- Egypt (host)
- Kenya
- Tunisia
No other national association has shown interest in this particular tournament, nor is any information available as of the writing of this article.
SOUTH AMERICAN VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Columbia
- Ecuador
- French Guiana
- Guyana
- Paraguay
- Peru (host)
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
The winner of this tournament will play the winner of the African Confederation as one of the representatives in the Final 6. This tournament will play from May 21 to May 26.
EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- France
- Hungary (host)
- Portugal
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Ukraine
This competition will be split into three pools of four, with pool play lasting from May 21 to June 6. The top two places in this competition advance to the Challenger’s Cup.
NORCECA VOLLEYBALL CONFEDERATION
- Canada (host)
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Nicaragua
- Puerto Rico
- Trinidad and Tobago
Two pools of three will start play on May 17, with the overall winner qualifying for the Challenger’s Cup.
Once the Final 6 have been announced, their tournament will produce a winner that will challenge the last place team in this year’s Nations League. The winner of that match will qualify for the 2019 FIVB Nations League.
Leave a Reply