Volleyball World Cup

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VolleyballWorldCupLogo.png

World Cup Logo

The World Cup is a men's and women's volleyball competition. Created in 1965 (men) and 1973 (women), it is an international qualification event for the Olympic Games. It is not to be confused with the World Championship.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Origins
1.2 Previous Winners (Men)
1.3 Previous Winners (Women)

2 Competition Formula

3 Palmarès

3.1 Men
3.2 Women

4 External links

History

Origins

The World Cup was created in 1965 with the purpose of partially filling the gap between the two most important volleyball tournaments, the Olympic Games and the World Championship, which take place in alternating 4-year cicles. The establishment of a third international competition would leave only one in every four years with no major events.

The World Cup was to be held in the year following the Olympic Games. The first two editions of the tournament were for men's volleyball only. In 1973, a women's version was also introduced. Originally, each edition had a different host, but in 1977 the competition was transfered to Japan on a permanent basis.

In the 90's, the installment of annual international events such as the World League and the Grand Prix made the original motivations for the creation of the World Cup obsolete. Instead of letting a consolidated event disappear for lack of interest, the FIVB decided to change its format in 1991: it would be held in the year preceding, and not following, the Olympic Games; and it would be considered a first international olympic qualification tournament, granting the winner a direct berth in the games.

This move saved the competition. The possibility of securing an early berth for the Olympic Games, thus avoiding extrenous and in some cases tight continental qualification procedures, became a consistent motivation for the national federations to participate in the World Cup. In 1995, the number of olympic spots granted at the competition was increased to three, as it remains up to now (2003).

Previous Winners (Men)

Former USSR is so far (2003) the only team that managed to win more than once the Men's World Cup. The Soviets took the gold at the opening edition of the tournament, in 1965. Four years later, the winner was also a communist nation, East Germany.

Scheduled for Uruguay, the men's events of the 1973 edition were cancelled. In 1977, competition was resumed in Japan, and the USSR came back for two wins in a row. In 1985, they were once again runner-ups, but lost the decisive match to USA in five sets. In 1989, Cuba surprised the world and beat Italy to take the gold.

With the competition now set as a qualifying event for the Olympic Games, the USSR won the title in 1991, at the brink of dissolution. The Italians, who hadn't participated in this edition, finally conquered their gold medal in 1995.

Inheriting a large part of the former Soviet volleyball programme, Russia was the winner in 1999. In the following edition, the last one played so far, favorite Brazil did not disappoint its fans and swept smoothly through all its opponents for the gold.

In ten editions of the World Cup, The Soviet Union won the gold four times (or five, if Russia's victory of 1999 is also taken into account). The remaining editions went each to a different team.

Previous Winners (Women)

The Women's World Cup has had not one great winner, like its counterpart for men's volleyball, but two: Cuba and China.

The first edition of the tournament was won by the USSR. Japan, the runner-up of 1973, took the gold in 1977. With the help of superstar player Lang Ping, China won the following two editions, in 1981 and 1985.

Then Cuba stepped forward to begin its amazing World Cup career, winning its first title in 1989. With the tournament now as an olympic qualifier, there followed three more consecutive victories, in 1991, 1995 and 1999.

Finally, China came back in 2003 with a remarkably offensive team to win its third title.

Nine editions of the tournament were played so far (2003). The last seven went either to Cuba or to China. Only the first two were won by any other nation.

Competition Formula

The World Cup's is the most stable from all competition formulas employed by the FIVB. The following rules apply:

The competition takes place in Japan.
Twelve teams participate in each event: ten qualified, two per invitation.
Japan is always pre-qualified as host nation.
Nine teams qualify through Continental Championships. Africa has one spot reserved in the tournament. All other continents have two.
The remaining two teams participate through wild cards granted by the FIVB.
The competition is divided in exactly two phases (called "legs").
Teams are divided in two pools.
At the first leg, each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
At the second leg, each team plays one match against all the teams in the other pool.
Matches take place continuosly through two weeks, with one-day breaks every two or three days. Each day, six matches are played.
Final standings are calculated by usual volleyball criteria: number of wins, set average, point average, direct confrontation.
Top three teams in overall standings, regardless of pools, qualify for the following Olympic Games.
The tournament implements very tight line-up restrictions: only twelve players are allowed, and no replacement is permited, even in the case of injuries.

Palmarès

Men

Year	Host	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1965	Warsaw, Poland	URS	POL	CZE	JPN	DDR	ROM	HUN	YUG	BUL	NED	FRA
1969	Berlin, East Germany	DDR	JPN	URS	BUL	CZE	BRA	ROM	POL	BRD	TUN	CUB	DDR (Jr.)*
1973	Montevideo, Uruguay	Men's events were cancelled
1977	Japan	URS	JPN	CUB	POL	CHN	BUL	KOR	BRA	MEX	USA	EGY	CAN
1981	Japan	URS	CUB	BRA	POL	CHN	JPN	ITA	TUN
1985	Japan	USA	URS	CZE	BRA	ARG	JPN	KOR	EGY
1989	Japan	CUB	ITA	URS	USA	BRA	JPN	KOR	CMR
1991	Japan	URS	CUB	USA	JPN	KOR	BRA	GER	TUN	ALG	MEX	IRI	CHN
1995	Japan	ITA	NED	BRA	USA	JPN	CUB	ARG	KOR	CHN	CAN	EGY	TUN
1999	Japan	RUS	CUB	ITA	USA	BRA	ESP	KOR	CAN	ARG	JPN	CHN	TUN
2003	Japan	BRA	ITA	SCG	USA	FRA	KOR	CAN	VEN	JPN	CHN	TUN	EGY
*East Germany's Men's Junior team. ARG, Argentina; BRA, Brazil; BRD, West Germany; BUL, Bulgaria; CAN, Canada; CHN, China; CMR: Cameroon; CUB, Cuba; CZE, The Czech Republic; DDR, East Germany; EGY, Egypt; ESP, Spain; FRA, France; GER, Germany; HUN, Hungary; IRI, Iran; ITA, Italy; JPN, Japan; KOR, Korea; MEX, Mexico;NED, The Netherlands; PER, Peru; POL, Poland;ROM, Romania; RUS, Russia; SCG, Serbia & Montenegro; TUN, Tunisia; URS, The Soviet Union;USA, The United States; YUG, Yugoslavia; VEN, Venezuela.

Women

Year	Host	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1973	Montevideo, Uruguay	URS	JPN	KOR	PER	CUB	USA	CAN	ARG	BRA	URU
1977	Japan	JPN	CUB	KOR	CHN	PER	HUN	USA	URS
1981	Japan	CHN	JPN	URS	USA	KOR	CUB	BUL	BRA
1985	Japan	CHN	CUB	URS	JPN	PER	BRA	KOR	TUN
1989	Japan	CUB	URS	CHN	JPN	PER	DDR	KOR	CAN
1991	Japan	CUB	CHN	URS	USA	PER	KOR	JPN	BRA	GER	CAN	ESP	KEN
1995	Japan	CUB	BRA	CHN	CRO	KOR	JPN	USA	NED	CAN	PER	KEN	EGY
1999	Japan	CUB	RUS	BRA	KOR	CHN	JPN	ITA	CRO	USA	PER	ARG	TUN
2003	Japan	CHN	BRA	USA	ITA	JPN	CUB	TUR	POL	KOR	DOM	ARG	EGY
ARG, Argentina; BRA, Brazil; BUL, Bulgaria; CAN, Canada; CHN, China; CUB, Cuba; DDR, East Germany DOM, Dominican Republic; EGY, Egypt; ESP, Spain; GER, Germany; HUN, Hungary; ITA, Italy; JPN, Japan; KEN: Kenya; KOR, Korea; NED, The Netherlands; PER, Peru; POL, Poland; ROM, Romania; RUS, Russia; TUN, Tunisia; URS, The Soviet Union; URU, Uruguay; USA, The United States.