Current season, competition or edition: 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup | |
| Sport | Volleyball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 |
| First season | 2018 |
| CEO |  Ary Graça |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Continent | International (FIVB) |
| Most recent champion(s) |  Turkey(1st title) |
| Most titles |  Cuba Portugal Slovenia Turkey(1 title each) |
| Streaming partner(s) | Volleyball TV |
| Promotion to | Nations League |
| Official website | Volleyball Challenger Cup |
The FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The first tournament was played between 20 and 24 June 2018 in Matosinhos, Portugal. The Portugal team won the inaugural edition, defeating Czech Republic counterpart in the final and qualified for the 2019 Nations League.
History[edit]
The tournament was first announced in October 2017 (alongside with the announcement of the Nations League) as a joint project between the FIVB, the IMG and 21 national federations.[1] The Challenger Cup serves as a qualifying tournament for the aforementioned Nations League. The FIVB Challenger Cup is held before the Nations League's Final Round (in 2018 and 2019 editions) but changed it in 2022 edition and the winner earns the right to participate in the next year's Nations League.[2][3]
A corresponding tournament for women's national teams is the FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup.
Format[edit]
Previous format[edit]
The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in a round-robin format. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The first ranked teams play against the second ranked teams in this round. The winners of the semifinals advance to compete for the Challenger Cup title. The champion team will qualify for the next year's Nations League as a challenger team.[2][4]
New format[edit]
The eight qualified teams play in a knockout stage format. The top four teams in the quarterfinals will qualify for the semifinals. The winner of the quarterfinal 1 will play a semifinal match against the winner of the quarterfinal 4 and the winner of the quarterfinal 2 will play a semifinal match against the winner of the quarterfinal 3. The winners of the semifinals will advance to compete for the Challenger Cup title. The champion team will qualify for the next year's Nations league as a challenger team.[5]
Qualification[edit]
| Confederation | Slots |
|---|---|
| AVC (Asia) | 1 |
| CAVB (Africa) | 1 |
| CSV (South America) | 1 |
| CEV (Europe) | 2 |
| NORCECA (North America) | 1 |
| Total | 8 (6+H+VNL) |
Hosts[edit]
List of hosts by number of final championships hosted.
| Times hosted | Hosts | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portugal |
2018 |
| Slovenia |
2019 | |
 South Korea |
2022 | |
 Qatar |
2023 |
Appearance[edit]
- Legend
- 1st – Champions
- 2nd – Runners-up
- 3rd – Third place
- 4th – Fourth place
- • – Did not enter / Did not qualify
- – Hosts
- Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament
| Team | 2018 (6) |
2019 (6) |
2022 (8) |
2023 (8) |
 2024 (8) |
Total |
 Australia |
• | • | 5th | • | 1 | |
 Belarus |
• | 3rd | • | • | 1 | |
 Chile |
5th | 6th | 8th | 4th | 4 | |
 China |
• | • | • | 5th | 1 | |
| Cuba |
4th | 2nd | 1st | • | 3 | |
 Czech Republic |
2nd | • | 4th | • | 2 | |
 Dominican Republic |
• | • | • | 6th | 1 | |
 Egypt |
• | 5th | • | • | 1 | |
 Estonia |
3rd | • | • | • | 1 | |
 Kazakhstan |
5th | • | • | • | 1 | |
 Mexico |
• | • | • | • | Q | 1 |
| Portugal |
1st | • | • | • | 1 | |
| Qatar |
• | • | 7th | 2nd | 2 | |
| Slovenia |
• | 1st | • | • | 1 | |
| South Korea |
• | • | 3rd | • | 1 | |
 Thailand |
• | • | • | 7th | 1 | |
 Tunisia |
• | • | 6th | 8th | 2 | |
| Turkey |
• | 4th | 2nd | 1st | 3 | |
 Ukraine |
• | • | • | 3rd | 1 |
Results summary[edit]
| Year | Host | Final | 3rd place match | Teams | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Score | Runners-up | 3rd place | Score | 4th place | ||||||
| 2018 Details |
Matosinhos |
 Portugal |
3–1 |  Czech Republic |
 Estonia |
3–0 |  Cuba |
6 | |||
| 2019 Details |
Ljubljana |
 Slovenia |
3–0 | Cuba |
 Belarus |
3–1 |  Turkey |
6 | |||
| 2020 | Gondomar |
Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||||
| 2021 | |||||||||||
| 2022 Details |
Seoul |
Cuba |
3–1 | Turkey |
 South Korea |
3–2 | Czech Republic |
8 | |||
| 2023 Details |
Doha |
Turkey |
3–2 |  Qatar |
 Ukraine |
3–0 |  Chile |
8 | |||
Medals summary[edit]
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuba | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Turkey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 3 | Portugal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Slovenia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | Czech Republic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Qatar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | Belarus | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Estonia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| South Korea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Ukraine | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (10 entries) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | |
Nations League qualifier[edit]
| Year | Relegated Challenger Team | Remaining Challenger Teams | Challenger Cup Winner | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | South Korea 
|
Australia 
|
 Bulgaria
|
 Canada
|
Only 4 challenger teams in the tournament | Portugal 
| |||
| 2019 | Portugal
|
Slovenia
| |||||||
| 2021 | None[6][7] |  Netherlands[a]
|
Slovenia
|
Cancelled[8] | |||||
| 2022 | Australia
|
China[b]
|
Cuba
| ||||||
| 2023 | China
|
Cuba
|
Turkey
| ||||||
See also[edit]
- FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League
- FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup
- FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League
Notes[edit]
- ^ Netherlands replaced China after the decision of the Chinese Volleyball Association to withdraw its national men's team due to financial limitations and travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[7]
- ^ China replaced Russia due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. As a result, Russia was out of the Nations League.[9]
References[edit]
- ^ "FIVB announces the Volleyball Nations League". FIVB.org. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ a b "FIVB Executive Committee embraces digital transformation". FIVB.org. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ "Volleyball Challenger Cup battles coming up in Croatia and Korea". volleyballworld. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
- ^ "Six teams line up for Volleyball Challenger Cup and one open berth in 2019 Men's and Women's VNL". FIVB.org. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ "Competition Formula". Volleyball World.
- ^ "Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2021 – Everything you need to know". IOC. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
- ^ a b "FIVB statement on participating teams at VNL 2021". FIVB. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ "FIVB announces cancellation of Volleyball Challenger Cup 2021". Volleyball World. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
- ^ "FIVB Declares Russia And Belarus Not Eligible For International And Continental Competitions". FIVB. 1 March 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
External links[edit]
- Fédération Internationale de Volleyball – official website
