The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship is an international volleyball competition organized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), which is held every two years. It began in 1952. It is the earliest event in the "three competitions" of women's volleyball (World Championship, World Cup and Olympic Games), and it is also the event with the most teams. It has been held for 17 sessions.
Origin and development
The world Championship is widely valued by all countries. Originally held in the same year as the Olympic Games, it was changed to the following year after the Olympic Games in 1962 (except for the fifth women's Games). The winner of the championship can directly participate in the next Olympic Games.The first World Championship began in 1949, and the initial competition was not limited by the number of intercontinental teams, that is, any team that applied for participation could be eligible to participate. However, since 1986 (men's 11th, women's 10th) FIVB rules have allowed only 16 teams to participate in the World Championships, as volleyball has gradually become a popular sport worldwide, and more and more countries want to qualify. The specific qualification is the 7 teams that won the first to the seventh place in the last competition, a team from the host country, 5 champions of the five continents Championship, and the top 3 teams in the final qualifying tournament (Tour Winners Cup).In 1994, the FIVB revised the eligibility for the World Championships. For the final qualifying event held directly by the FIVB, the top 3 places will be increased to the top 9 places to qualify for the competition. The rule that "two to seven players from the last race of the World Championships are eligible to participate naturally" is cancelled.On June 23, 2023 Beijing time, the FIVB Governing Council approved the 2025 to 2028 calendar. According to the arrangement, the World Men's and Women's Volleyball Championships will be held every two years instead of every four years, in 2025 and 2027 respectively. In addition, the Los Angeles Olympic volleyball eligibility method has also made changes.
Entry qualification
According to the rules of the World Championship, 24 teams entered the finals, and the allocation of these 24 teams was as follows: the host country and the defending champion automatically qualified, and the other continental divisions were allocated to 8 European teams, 6 teams from Central and North America, 4 teams from Asia, 2 teams from South America and 2 teams from Africa.
Competition method
The women's volleyball World Championship is divided into three stages.
The first stage: 24 teams are divided into 4 groups A, B, C, D, each group of 6 teams, the group ranking is determined after a single cycle, the top four in the group advance to the second stage, the fifth and six are eliminated; Each team will play five games in this phase.
The second stage: The 16 teams promoted in the group stage are divided into two groups E and F. Group E is the top four of Group A and Group D, Group F is the top four of Group B and Group C, each group is 8 teams, still using a single round robin, and the results of the teams in the same group in the first stage should be brought into the second stage, that is, the teams that played in the first stage of the group stage will not play in the second stage. This allowed each team to play only four games in the second phase; The top two in each group go directly to the final four.
Stage 3: The top two teams in groups E and F will play in the semi-finals, E1-F2, F1-E2, and the winner will play in the championship and runner-up finals.
