The 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League was the 26th edition of the annual men's international volleyball tournament, played from 16 May to 19 July 2015. The tournament featured a record 32 participating countries from 5 confederations. The teams were divided into 3 groups and 8 pools. The Group 1 Final Round, which served as the volleyball test event of the 2016 Summer Olympics, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Qualification All 28 teams of the 2014 edition directly qualified. and qualified through the 2014 European League. qualified through the 2014 Asian Cup. qualified through the 2013 African Championship. replaced , who withdrew from the tournament.
GroupAfricaAsia and OceaniaEuropeNorth AmericaSouth America Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Format It will be the first time the World League will feature 32 teams, having had 28 teams in 2014, 18 teams in 2013 and 16 teams from 2001 to 2003 and 2006–12. The World League featured 8 teams in its inaugural year in 1990, 10 in 1991 and then 12 from 1992 to 2000 and 2004–05. During the Intercontinental Round, Pools A to E will play double home and away matches, for a total of 12 matches per team. Pool F to H will feature two stand-alone tournaments. The last ranked team of Group 1 after the Intercontinental Round could be relegated if the winners of the Group 2 Final Round can meet the promotion requirements set by the FIVB.
Pools composition The pools of Group 1 were announced on 18 July 2014, while the pools of Group 2 and 3 were announced on 31 October 2014. After Germany withdrew, Japan replaced them in Pool D, while Venezuela took Japan's spot in Pool H.
Group 1Group 2Group 3Pool APool BPool CPool DPool EPool FPool GPool H
Competition schedule ●Intercontinental round●Final round
Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10Group 18 matches8 matches8 matches8 matches8 matches8 matches10 matchesGroup 24 matches2 matches10 matches12 matches12 matches10 matches12 matches10 matches4 matchesGroup 318 matches18 matches 4 matches
Squads There are 25 players in team rosters. Maximum of 12 regular players and maximum of 2 liberos can be selected to play in each week. The full rosters of 25 players of each team can be seen in the article below.
Pool standing procedure Number of matches won Match points Sets ratio Points ratio If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
Intercontinental round All times are local.
Group 1 The Group 1 Final Round hosts Brazil, the top two teams from Pool A and B and the winners of the Group 2 Final Round will qualify for the Group 1 Final Round. If Brazil finishes as one of the top two teams in Pool A, Pool A will send its top three teams.
Pool A
Week 3 Venue: Adelaide Arena, Adelaide, Australia Venue: Mineirinho Arena, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Week 4 Venue: Ginásio Adib Moyses Dib, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil Venue: Adriatic Arena, Pesaro, Italy Venue: Land Rover Arena, Bologna, Italy
Week 5 Venue: SPC Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia Venue: Pala Arrex, Jesolo, Italy Venue: Pionir Hall, Belgrade, Serbia Venue: PalaOlimpia, Verona, Italy
Week 6 Venue: SPC Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia Venue: Foro Italico Tennis Center Court, Rome, Italy Venue: Pionir Hall, Belgrade, Serbia Venue: Nelson Mandela Forum, Florence, Italy
Week 7 Venue: SPC Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia Venue: Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, Sydney, Australia Venue: Pionir Hall, Belgrade, Serbia
Week 8 Venue: Ginásio Aecim Tocantins, Cuiabá, Brazil Venue: State Basketball Centre, Wantirna South, Australia
Pool B
Week 3 Venue: Ergo Arena, Gdańsk, Poland Venue: Galen Center, Los Angeles, United States
Week 4 Venue: Hala Sportowa Częstochowa, Częstochowa, Poland Venue: Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, United States
Week 5 Venue: Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates, United States Venue: Kazan Volleyball Centre, Kazan, Russia
Week 6 Venue: Kazan Volleyball Centre, Kazan, Russia Venue: Azadi Indoor Stadium, Tehran, Iran
Week 7 Venue: Yantarny Sports Complex, Kaliningrad, Russia Venue: Azadi Indoor Stadium, Tehran, Iran
Week 8 Venue: Azadi Indoor Stadium, Tehran, Iran Venue: Tauron Arena, Kraków, Poland
Group 2 The Group 2 Final Round hosts Bulgaria and the winners of Pool C, D and E will qualify for the Group 2 Final Round. If Bulgaria finishes first in Pool C, Pool C will send its top two teams.
Pool C
Week 1 Venue: Stampede Corral, Calgary, Canada
Week 3 Venue: Polideportivo Municipal Gustavo Torito Rodríguez, San Martín, Argentina Venue: Arena Botevgrad, Botevgrad, Bulgaria
Week 4 Venue: Scotiabank Centre, Halifax, Canada Venue: Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, Havana, Cuba
Week 5 Venue: Consolidated Credit Union Place, Summerside, Canada Venue: Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, Havana, Cuba
Week 6 Venue: Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, Havana, Cuba Venue: Polideportivo Delmi, Salta, Argentina
Week 7 Venue: Microestadio Presidente Juan Domingo Perón, González Catán, Argentina Venue: Palace of Culture and Sports, Varna, Bulgaria
Week 8 Venue: Palace of Culture and Sports, Varna, Bulgaria
Pool D
Week 3 Venue: Suwon Gymnasium, Suwon, South Korea Venue: Momotaro Arena, Okayama, Japan
Week 4 Venue: Yu Gwan-sun Gymnasium, Cheonan, South Korea Venue: Shimadzu Arena, Kyoto, Japan
Week 5 Venue: Salle Frédéric Lawson-Body, Poitiers, France Venue: Suwon Gymnasium, Suwon, South Korea Venue: Salle Pierre Dumortier, Tourcoing, France
Week 6 Venue: Budvar Arena, České Budějovice, Czech Republic Venue: Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan
Week 7 Venue: Salle Robert Grenon, Tours, France Venue: Home Credit Arena, Liberec, Czech Republic Venue: Kindarena, Rouen, France
Week 8 Venue: Palais des Sports Jacques Chaban Delmas, Castelnau-le-Lez, France Venue: Opava Sports Hall, Opava, Czech Republic Venue: Brest Arena, Brest, France
Pool E
Week 1 Venue: Centro de Desportos e Congressos de Matosinhos, Matosinhos, Portugal
Week 2 Venue: Tampere Ice Stadium, Tampere, Finland
Week 3 Venue: Sportcampus Lange Munte, Kortrijk, Belgium
Week 4 Venue: Vaasa Arena, Vaasa, Finland Venue: Maaspoort Sports and Events, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Week 5 Venue: Topsportcentrum Almere, Almere, Netherlands Venue: Country Hall Ethias Liège, Liège, Belgium
Week 6 Venue: MartiniPlaza, Groningen, Netherlands
Week 7 Venue: Barona Areena, Espoo, Finland Venue: Pavilhão Desportivo Municipal da Póvoa de Varzim, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
Week 8 Venue: Lotto Arena, Antwerp, Belgium Venue: Pavilhão Desportivo Municipal da Póvoa de Varzim, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
Group 3 The Group 3 Final Round hosts Slovakia and the winners of Pool F, G and H will qualify for the Group 3 Final Round. If Slovakia finishes first in Pool G, Pool G will send its top two teams.
Pool F
Week 5 Venue: Morača Sports Center, Podgorica, Montenegro
Week 6 Venue: TVF Burhan Felek Sport Hall, Istanbul, Turkey
Pool G
Week 5 Venue: Auditorio de la Gente, Tepic, Mexico
Week 6 Venue: Alexandreio Melathron Nick Galis Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece
Pool H
Week 5 Venue: Sports Palace Taraz-Arena, Taraz, Kazakhstan
Week 6 Venue: Cairo Stadium Indoor Hall 2, Cairo, Egypt
Final round
Group 3 Venue: Aegon Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Final four (Week 8)
Semifinals
3rd place match
Final
Group 2 Venue: Palace of Culture and Sports, Varna, Bulgaria All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00).
Final four (Week 9)
Semifinals
3rd place match
Final
Group 1 Venue: Ginásio do Maracanãzinho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).
Pool play (Week 10)
Pool I
Pool J
Final four (Week 10)
Semifinals
3rd place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam457810111213151821222324252830
14-man Roster for Group 1 Final RoundAguenier, Grebennikov, Rouzier, Clévenot, Toniutti (c), K. Tillie, Jaumel, N'Gapeth, Le Roux, Lyneel, Le Goff, Maréchal, Lafitte, SidibéHead coachL. Tillie
Awards
Most valuable player Earvin N'Gapeth Best setter Benjamin Toniutti Best outside spikers Earvin N'Gapeth Michał Kubiak Best middle blockers Maxwell Holt Srećko Lisinac Best opposite spiker Aleksandar Atanasijević Best libero Paweł Zatorski
Prize money
Prize Money for the Final Standing Champions – $1,000,000 Runners-up – $500,000 3rd place – $300,000 4th place – $150,000 5th place – $75,000 (2 teams)
Prize Money for the Awards Most Valuable Player – $30,000 Best Setter – $10,000 Best Outside Spiker – $10,000 (2 players) Best Middle Blocker – $10,000 (2 players) Best Opposite Spiker – $10,000 Best Libero – $10,000
Statistics The statistics of each group follow the vis reports P2 and P3. The statistics include 6 volleyball skills, serve, receive, set, spike, block, and dig. The table below shows the top 5 ranked players in each skill plus top scorers as of 6 July 2015.
Best scorers The best scorers determined by players who scored points from spike, block, and serve.
Group 1Group 2Group 3RankNamePointsNamePointsNamePoints1 Bartosz Kurek207 Sam Deroo207 Vojin Ćaćić1262 Thomas Edgar196 Urpo Sivula193 Badawy Mohamed Moneim1093 Ricardo Lucarelli169 Rolando Cepeda192 Kervin Piñerua1084 Shahram Mahmoudi141 Kunihiro Shimizu180 Marko Bojić1035 Mateusz Mika139 Gert Van Walle175 Ahmed Abdelhay100
Best spikers The best spikers determined by players who successfully spike in percentage (%success).
Group 1Group 2Group 3RankName%succName%succName%succ1 Ricardo Lucarelli56.98 Antonin Rouzier59.26 Mitar Tzourits60.002 Shahram Mahmoudi56.33 Earvin N'Gapeth56.45 Rafail Koumentakis57.843 Matthew Anderson51.57 Song Myung-geun53.41 Dai Qingyao57.024 Wallace de Souza51.47 Sam Deroo53.31 Kadir Cin53.685 Milad Ebadipour50.91 Yūki Ishikawa52.22 Kervin Piñerua53.59
Best blockers The best scorers determined by players who had the most numbers of stuff block divided by numbers of sets which his team played (average stuff block/set).
Group 1Group 2Group 3RankNameAvg/setNameAvg/setNameAvg/set1 Mohammad Mousavi0.65 Kévin Le Roux0.65 Jorge Fernández Valcarcel0.782 Nehemiah Mote0.51 Viktor Yosifov0.57 Miguel Angel Fornes0.743 Simone Anzani0.50 Teodor Todorov0.56 Mannix Roman0.654 Jacob Ross Guymer0.49 Nicolas Le Goff0.54 Anton Kuznetsov0.635 Maxwell Holt0.48 Pieter Verhees0.53 Omar Agrebi0.62
Best servers The best scorers determined by players who had the most numbers of ace serve divided by numbers of sets which his team played (average ace serve/set).
Group 1Group 2Group 3RankNameAvg/setNameAvg/setNameAvg/set1 Paul Sanderson0.30 Nimir Abdel-Aziz0.57 Daniel Rocamora Blazquez0.522 Thomas Edgar0.30 Olli-Pekka Ojansivu0.41 Marko Bojić0.523 Micah Christenson0.26 Alexandre Ferreira0.38 Zhang Zhejia0.474 Emanuele Birarelli0.25 Earvin N'Gapeth0.37 Yuan Zhi0.365 Srećko Lisinac0.25 Urpo Sivula0.33 Hossam Abdalla0.35
Best setters The best scorers determined by players who had the most numbers of running set divided by numbers of sets which his team played (average running set/set).
Group 1Group 2Group 3RankNameAvg/setNameAvg/setNameAvg/set1 Dragan Travica3.88 Hideomi Fukatsu6.55 José Carrasco9.432 Saeid Marouf3.87 Benjamin Toniutti6.07 Ángel Trinidad8.433 Fabian Drzyzga3.85 Ricardo Calvo5.82 Kanat Gabdulin6.174 Micah Christenson3.85 TJ Sanders5.76 Abdallah Abdalsalam Abdallah Bekhit4.805 Nikola Jovović3.67 Demián González4.68 Pedro Rangel2.68
Best diggers The best scorers determined by players who had the most numbers of excellent dig divided by numbers of sets which his team played (average excellent dig/set).