The 2021 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League was the third edition of the

FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League The FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League is an annual international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The first tournament took place between Ma ...

, an annual men's international

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

tournament. The 2021 version of VNL was scheduled to start earlier than the previous edition due to the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in July. The competition was held between May and June 2021, and the final round took place in Rimini Fiera,

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...

, Italy.

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

claimed their first VNL title after beating

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in four sets.

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

sweeped

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in three sets and grabbed the bronze medal. Both

Wallace de Souza Wallace Leandro de Souza (born 26 June 1987), known by the mononym Wallace, is a Brazilian volleyball player, member of the Brazil men's national volleyball team, 2016 Olympic Champion, silver medallist of the Olympic Games (London 2012), 201 ...

from Brazil and

Bartosz Kurek Bartosz Kamil Kurek (born 29 August 1988) is a Polish professional volleyball player. He is a member of the Poland national team, a participant in the Olympic Games (London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020), 2018 World Champion, 2009 European Champ ...

from Poland named as MVPs of the tournament.

Qualification

In the 2019 edition sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Twelve of them qualified as core teams which could not face relegation. Other four teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament.

as winner of 2019 Challenger Cup earned the right to participate in this tournament replacing

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, the last placed challenger team after the 2019 edition. This year there won’t be any promotion or relegation and the 16 participants will also compete in the 2022 edition.

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

replaced

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

after the decision of the

Chinese Volleyball Association Chinese Volleyball Association (Simplified Chinese:中国排球协会) is a national non-governmental, nonprofit sports organization in the People's Republic of China. It represents China in the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball and the A ...

to withdraw its national men's team due to financial limitations and travel restrictions caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Format

Preliminary round

The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format. The teams play 3 matches each week and compete five weeks long, for 120 matches. The top four teams after the preliminary round compete in the final round.

Final round

The four qualified teams play knock-out round. The semifinals winners advance to compete for the Nations League title. The losers face each other in the third place match.

Secure bubble

As to ensure athletes were able to compete and the games were conducted safely, the 2021 VNL was played under a secure bubble. After the game, a total of 2,250 PCR and 7,920 antigen tests were performed and only one registered COVID-19 case was found.

Venue

Competition schedule

Pool standing procedure

# Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) # In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most points gained per match as follows: #*Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser #*Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser #*Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser # If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: #*Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost. #*Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. #*If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

Squads

The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 25 players, which every week's 14-player roster must be selected from. Each country must declare its 14-player roster two days before the start of each week's round-robin competition.

Preliminary round

*All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

( UTC+02:00).

Ranking

''Source
VNL 2021 standings
'

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Final round

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Semifinals

Third place match

Final

Final standing

''Source
VNL 2021 final standings
'

Awards

*Most Valuable Players : : *Best Setter : *Best Outside Spikers : : *Best Middle Blockers : : *Best Opposite Spikers : : *Best Libero :

Statistics leaders

Preliminary round

''Statistics leaders correct as of

preliminary round A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

.''

Final round

''Statistics leaders correct as of

final round A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

.''

COVID related

Because of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

restrictions, the games were played without spectators. A total of 10,170 COVID-19 tests (including women's side) were conducted to players, referees, officials and staff every four days.

Notes

References

External links

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball
– official website
FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2021
– official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Volleyball, Nations League, Men, 2021

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

FIVB

FIVB FIVB FIVB International men's volleyball competitions hosted by Italy

Qualification

Format

Preliminary round

Final round

Secure bubble

Venue

Competition schedule

Pool standing procedure

Squads

Preliminary round

Ranking

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Final round

Semifinals

Third place match

Final

Final standing

Awards

Statistics leaders

Preliminary round

Final round

COVID related

See also

Notes

References

External links