The FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League is an annual 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 ...

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 May and July 2018, with the final taking place in

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, France.

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won the inaugural edition, defeating

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in the final. In July 2018, the FIVB announced that USA would host the next three editions of the men's Volleyball Nations League Finals, from 2019–2021‌. However, the host selection was changed due to a scheduling conflict with the U.S. Independence Day. The FIVB then confirmed

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, Italy as the new host of the final stage of 2020 VNL, but on 13 March 2020 the FIVB decided to postpone the Nations League until after the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Finally, the FIVB canceled the 2020 edition and confirmed Italy as the host of the final stage of the 2021 VNL. In February 2024, the FIVB announced that the competition will be expand to 18 teams from the 2025 edition onwards while the core and challenge teams' status will be abolished with the reformed format. The creation of the tournament was announced in October 2017 (alongside the announcement of the Challenger Cup) as a joint project between the FIVB, the

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and 21 national federations. The Nations League replaced the World League, a former annual men's international event that ran between

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and

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. A corresponding tournament for women's national teams is the

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

History

Adoption

In June 2017, Argentinian website Voley Plus reported that the FIVB would drastically change the format for both the 2018 World League and World Grand Prix. According to the reports, starting from 2018, the World League and the World Grand Prix would have only one Group (no more Groups 1, 2 and 3) of 16 national teams. In October 2017, the FIVB announced, via a press release, the creation of the men's and women's Volleyball Nations League, confirming the tournaments as a replacement for the World League and World Grand Prix. According to the press release, the goal of the tournament would be to revolutionize volleyball competitions, making it one of the most important events in the history of the sport, presenting volleyball in a way that has never been experienced before, building on the innovative sports presentation on display at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and bringing the action closer to fans around the world. By pushing the boundaries of technology, innovation and digital broadcasting, spectators at home would witness new and diverse angles, showcasing the world class athleticism of each nation's best players. For the first time, the FIVB, in collaboration with the sports marketing company

, would take complete control of content production, maximizing quality and promoting a compelling on-court narrative, easier for fans to engage with and understand.

Marketing

The International Volleyball Federation has partnered with global brand strategy and design firm

Landor Associates Landor is a brand consulting firm founded in 1941 by Walter Landor, who pioneered some research, design, and consulting methods that the branding industry still uses. Headquartered in London, the company maintains 32 offices, including China, ...

to create the Volleyball Nations League branding. Landor has also contributed with in-stadium and on-screen television graphics, staff uniforms, designs for the World Volleyball app, medals and the winning trophy.

Digital

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, the multinational technology company, has signed an agreement with the FIVB that the international federation vows will change the way the sport of volleyball is consumed while heightening the fan experience during match days as well as in the digital space. Under the tie-up, the "Microsoft Sports Digital Platform" has been created to create new digital services and deliver personalised content on demand in order to boost the FIVB global audience and improve fan engagement.

Prize money

According to the FIVB, the prize money is equal for both the men's and women's VNL as per the FIVB's gender equality policy.

Team awards

At the preliminary round, the winning team is awarded US$9,500 for every win and the losing team is awarded US$4,250. Prize money allocated to teams based on their final place in the final round: * Champions: US$1,000,000 * Runners-up: US$500,000 * 3rd place: US$300,000 * 4th place: US$180,000 * 5th place: US$130,000 * 6th place: US$85,000 * 7th place: US$65,000 * 8th place: US$40,000 Fair Play Award: This first fair play award of US$15,000 was awarded to the men's team of Poland in VNL 2022 Finals as they admitted to touching the ball in blocking, or the net multiple times during Finals. Starting from VNL 2023 finals, A new system of rewarding fair play is introduced. For the first time in international competition, green cards will be shown to players who admit to a block touch or a net touch and thus help save time from unnecessary video challenges. The team with the highest number of green cards received during the VNL Finals will be rewarded a cash prize of US$30,000. In case of a tie, the best-ranked team will be awarded.

Individual awards

The players selected for the Dream Team receive US$10,000 each while the MVP is given US$30,000.

Market performance

The FIVB announced that the 2019 Volleyball Nations League (both men's and women's) attracted a cumulative global audience of more than 1.5 billion. This number was an increase of 200 million from the 2018 VNL. In total, more than 600,000 tickets were sold in the 2019 VNL. The cumulative global audience grew by a remarkable 48% growth from 2022 to 2023. Moreover, the sponsorship value of the VNL increased by 27%, and TV viewership increased by 13% to 630 million. The VNL 2023 also captivated a vast audience with a social media reach of 214 million.

Format

Previous format

As in the former World League, the competition will be divided in two phases, albeit with changes in the competition formula: a preliminary round, with a system of rotating host cities, and a final round played in a pre-selected host city. The preliminary round is held over five weeks, versus three in the World League. Each week, the participating teams are organized in pools, and each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool. All games in a pool take place over a weekend in the same city. When all matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top five teams in the overall standings qualify for the final round, and the remaining ones leave the competition. The host nation automatically qualifies for the final round. 16 national teams will compete in the inaugural edition of the tournament; 12 core teams, which are always qualified, and 4 challenger teams, which can face relegation. * Preliminary round The 16 teams compete in round-robin tournament, with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams in each week and compete five weeks long, with a total of 120 matches. The top five teams after the round-robin tournament join the hosts in the final round. The relegation will consider the four challenger teams and the last ranked challenger team will be excluded from the next edition. The winners of the Challenger Cup would qualify for the next edition as a challenger team. * Final round The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in a round-robin format. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The first ranked teams play against the second ranked teams in this round. The winners of the semifinals advance to compete for the Nations League title.

New format

The new format is applied to 2022 edition. The whole competition still be divided into two phases: The pool phase and the Finals. * Pool phase The 16 teams will be divided into 2 groups of eight. Each team will play with 12 matches during the three weeks of the preliminary round. Two pools of eight teams will compete in four matches of six days of competition (Tuesday – Sunday). The new competition format allows for a one-week gap between events. The total number of matches in the pool phase will be 96. * The finals The Finals will see the eight strongest teams moving directly to the knockout phase which will consist of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals and the bronze and gold medal matches. The total number of matches in the final phase will be 8.

Reform from 2025

The VNL will expand to 18 teams from 2025 alongside format changes that will elevate the VNL experience for athletes, fans, and all stakeholders. To facilitate the reform, there will be no relegation for the VNL 2024 participating teams, while the winner of the 2024 Volleyball Challenger Cup, plus the top ranked not-yet-qualified team as per the Senior Volleyball World Ranking, will join the participating teams of the VNL 2025. As of the 2025 edition, the core team status shall be abolished with the last team in the competition's final standing relegated, and the top team not yet qualified as per the Senior Volleyball World Ranking promoted into the following edition of the VNL.

Challenger Cup

The FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup will be a competition for national teams which will run in concurrence with the Volleyball Nations League. The Challenger Cup will consist of teams not participating in the current edition of the Volleyball Nations League and will feature one host team and seven teams from the five continental confederations as follows: The Continental Confederations, responsible for determining the teams that will qualify for the FIVB Challenger Cup, are free to organise their Continental Qualification Tournament or use an existing competition to define the qualified team(s). The FIVB Challenger Cup held before the FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals (in 2018 and 2019 editions) but changed it in 2022 edition and the winner earns the right to participate in the next year's Nations League as a challenger team.

Former VNL qualification system

The lowest ranked Challenger team of the current edition of the VNL will play the Volleyball Challenger Cup (VCC) held after the VNL. The winner of the current edition of the VCC shall be promoted and compete in the next edition of the VNL.

New relegation system from 2025

Starting from the 2025 season, the Challenger Cup ceases to exist. However, relegation remains for the last placed team at the end of the previous season.This left spot will be open to by the best ranked team that did not participate in the previous tournament.

Hosts

List of hosts by number of final round championships hosted.

Appearance

*''Table current through the end of 2024 edition''

Results summary

Medals summary

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...
by edition

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

– *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

– *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

– and *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

– *

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

– *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

– *

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Team performances by season

;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place * – No movement for challenger teams * – Promoted to the next year's VNL * – Relegated for challenger teams (2018–2024)/Excluded to the next year's VNL (2025–present) *''Table current through the end of 2024 edition''

Notes

References

External links

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball
– official website
Volleyball Nations League
– official website {{International volleyball (Men) Annual sporting events International men's volleyball competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2018