FIVB World League 2006

Calendar & Competition Formula

Intercontinental Round: 14 July to 20 August, various cities

The pools

The 16 participating teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams. Each pool plays a home-away round robin tournament.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Serbia & Montenegro	Brazil	Italy	Cuba
U.S.A.	Argentina	Russia	Korea
Poland	Portugal	China	Bulgaria
Japan	Finland	France	Egypt

The Intercontinental rounds take place over six weekends from 14 July to 20 August 2006. Each team plays two matches against the same team on separate days over the same weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). With three rounds at home and three away, there are a total of 12 matches for each team and an overall total of 96 matches in the preliminary phase.

Pool rankings

The team rankings per pool are determined by the points total (2 points for a victory, 1 point for a loss) after all matches have been played  in the Intercontinental Round. The top-ranked team in each pool qualifies for the final round.

The host team of the final round automatically qualifies for the final round, together with one wild card team designated by the FIVB. If the host team for the final round is ranked first in its pool, the second ranked team in this pool will qualify for the final round.

In the event of a tie at the end of the Intercontinental Round in the number of points scored by 2 or more teams, the teams will be classified according to the total number of points scored during all sets divided by the total number of points lost.

Final Round: 23-27 August, MOSCOW, Russia

The Final Round is played over 5 days, which are divided into pool play and eliminator matches.

QUALIFICATION: The organizer, the winner of each pool and a wild card chosen by the FIVB qualify for the final: TOTAL 6 TEAMS

TEAM DISTRIBUTION: The teams are divided into two Pools "E" and "F" of three teams each. The winners from the four pools in the Intercontinental Round are seeded according to their points ranking.

POOL MATCHES: On each of the first three days of the final round, two teams from the same pool play against each other, whilst the third plays against the third team in the other pool.

POOL RANKINGS: The three teams in each pool will be ranked as per the normal FIVB procedure and the top two teams in each pool will play a final four. The third placed team in each pool is eliminated.

FINAL FOUR: On the fourth day, the winner in each pool will meet the second placed team in the other pool. On the fifth and final day, the winners of these two matches play for the World League Champion gold and silver medals, whilst the two losing teams play for the bronze.