Lausanne, April 30, 2008 – All aboard for the World League!

The FIVB has received the squad lists for all 16 National Teams taking part in the 2008 FIVB World League, the flagship annual event in Men’s Volleyball involving the world's best players competing for more than USD 20 million Prize Money.

The composition of each team is published on the FIVB website and can be found by clicking on the “Teams” link on the left-hand side of the page at: www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Competitions/WorldLeague/2008/

Each National Federation has submitted its 19-strong list of players, from which 12 are selected for each weekend of competition. The “12 from 19” list is given to the World League Control Committee at the Technical Meeting the day before the weekend’s action.

The biggest names are set to return in 2008, including Russia’s Semen Poltavskiy, Best Scorer and Server last year, Bulgaria’s Matey Kaziyski, 2007 Best Spiker, and Brazil’s “Giba,” one of the hottest properties in world Volleyball, to name just three stars included in their countries’ lists.

The FIVB has already approved the match schedule for this year’s tournament. The 2008 edition will see 96 matches over six consecutive weekends in 41 cities across the globe.

The six Intercontinental Rounds begin the weekend of June 13-15 and end the weekend of July 18-20. The teams are divided into four pools, with each team playing their pool opponents twice over a weekend both home and away. Brazil, France, Serbia, Venezuela are in Pool A, Russia, Cuba, Korea, Italy in Pool B, USA, Bulgaria, Spain, Finland in Pool C and Poland, Japan, China, Egypt in Pool D.

The Final Round will be contested by six teams playing a total of 10 matches in Rio de Janeiro through July 23-27.

Brazil will be looking for their sixth-straight World League triumph. Another success for the Brazilians would mean they match Italy for most World League victories with eight.

The World League, started by the FIVB in 1990, is a spectacular showcase for the crème de la crème of Men’s Volleyball. The total attendance for the 2007 edition was 637,000 fans with total TV coverage of 2,244 hours. The Finals had more than 1 billion TV viewers and 757 hours of live TV coverage.