Goodbye To The FIVB World Grand Prix

The FIVB has NOT confirmed the news yet but there’s a lot of talks in the volleyball community that the FIVB World Grand Prix will now be called FIVB Women’s World League starting next year. Along with a new name is also a new format composed of 16 teams: 12 permanent teams and 4 challengers.

This unbelievable point during Japan vs Brazil was the longest rally of Week 2. Try to guess how many touches the players got on the ball #FIVBGrandPrix #volleyball #Japan #Brazil #Sendai #rally #longpoint #actionclip #greateffort #effort #dontdrop #drop #amazing #unbelievable #fantastic

A post shared by FIVB Volleyball (@fivbvolleyball) on Jul 17, 2017 at 6:21am PDT

The FIVB has reportedly decided to abolish Groups 1, 2 and 3 and will now focus on the world’s top teams plus 4 lower ranked teams starting next year. According to a Brazilian news site, there will be 5 rounds and all 16 teams will play each other once.

The Permanent Teams:

Brazil
China
Serbia
USA
Russia
The Netherlands

A post shared by FIVB Volleyball (@fivbvolleyball) on Jul 23, 2017 at 1:00pm PDT

Italy
Germany
Turkey
Japan
Korea
Thailand

The Challengers:

Poland
Belgium
Dominican Republic
Argentina

A post shared by FIVB Volleyball (@fivbvolleyball) on Jul 23, 2017 at 10:23am PDT

Noticeably missing are some European teams like Bulgaria, Croatia and Czech Republic. Teams from the Americas like Puerto Rico and Peru are also excluded.

We’re not sure on the criteria the FIVB used to determine the inclusion of the 16 teams BUT you’ve got to be a world class team to be part of this new format.

What do you think Volleywooders?