Fans and media pack out the 2006 FIVB World Championship Men's Final between Brazil and Poland

Lausanne, May 6, 2008 – FIVB President Rubén Acosta's vision of the 2010 FIVB World Championships being the best ever is set to be realised after the record target of 200 registered National Teams was reached for the next edition of Volleyball's celebrated quadrennial tournament.

"We established a goal of 200 National Teams participating in the 2010 FIVB Volleyball World Championships to beat the record we had of 176 teams in 2006," said Dr. Acosta on Tuesday. "I am really proud so many National Federations applied to be part of this grand competition that will herald a new decade in the history of the FIVB.

"Thanks to this large participation of teams the competitions will be the best ever, culminating with two fantastic Finals in Italy and Japan," said FIVB President Acosta.

The application window remains open for the Preliminary Rounds until the 31st FIVB World Congress in Dubai and National Federations will be allowed to register directly at the Congress on June 16-17, 2008. The official list of entrants for the competitions will be released in July following the Congress.

The 2010 Men's World Championship Finals will be held in Italy from September 23 to October 10 and the Women's in Japan from October 29 to November 14. There will be 24 National Teams in each of the Finals.

There are 106 Men's National Teams and 94 Women's National Teams from 109 National Federations registered for the Preliminary Rounds as of May 1, 2008. The 2002 event involved a total of 129 teams and the 1998 event 112.

The North and Central American Confederation (NORCECA) have registered a Confederation-record 65 Men's and Women's teams from 33 countries, improving on the 39 teams that registered for the 2006 competition.

The Drawing of Lots for the First, Second, Third and Playoff Round Tournaments is scheduled to take place in Autumn 2008, after which the World Championships will begin.

Four teams have already qualified for the 2010 Finals, with the Italian Men and Japanese Women automatically taking their places as host countries and the Russian Women and Brazilian Men guaranteed a berth as defending champions after winning gold in Japan in 2006.