Intercontinental Rounds

The Intercontinental rounds take place over six weekends from June 12 to July 19 2009. 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 intercontinental rounds.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
USA	Serbia	Russia	Brazil
Italy	France	Bulgaria	Poland
China	Korea	Japan	Finland
Netherlands	Argentina	Cuba	Venezuela

Pool rankings

The team rankings per pool are determined by the points total after all matches have been played in the Intercontinental Round. The top-ranked team in each pool qualifies for the final round.

Match won 3-0 or 3-1:  3 points for the winner, 0 point for the loser.
Match won 3-2:  2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser.
In case of tie, the teams will be classified according to the following criteria: number of matches won, points ratio and sets ratio.

In the event of a tie at the end of the Intercontinental Round in the number of points scored by two or more teams, the teams will be classified according to the following criteria:
1. Number of Matches won.
2. Point ratio. Quotient resulting from: total number of points scored / total number of points lost.
3. Set ratio. If there is still a tie after applying the two criteria described above, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from: total sets scored / total sets lost.
 

Final Round qualification

Winners of pools, A, C, and D.

The host team of the final round (Serbia, Pool B) automatically qualifies for the final round. If Serbia is ranked first in its pool, the team ranked second of Pool B will qualify for the final round.

The team ranked best second according to the ranking points amongst pools A, C and D will take the last available vacancy for the final round. In case of a tie, criteria used to determine pool rankings and described above will be followed.

NB: The best second takes the qualification place attributed previously to the "Wild Card". There is no "Wild Card" this year.

Final Round
22 - 26 July 2009, Belgrade, SERBIA
TEAMS QUALIFIED: Serbia, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Russia, USA

The Final Round will be played over 5 days (10 matches in total).

TEAMS DISTRIBUTION: The teams are divided in two Pools "E" and "F" of three teams each.

POOL MATCHES: The first three days of the final, all teams of the same pool will play against each other.

TEAMS RANKING PER POOL: The three teams in each pool will be ranked as per the WL Specific Competition Regulation described above and the top two teams OF EACH POOL will play a final four. The teams ranked at the 3rd place of each pool will be eliminated and tie for the 5th Place.

Order of matches