Sixteen national teams including Italy, triple world champion and Yugoslavia, Sydney Olympic champion, enter the
lists on Friday 11 May on the occasion of the 12th edition of the World League, which has become one of the competitions with the richest ever prize money in sport history.

With an increase of 50% compared to last year (15 million US$ instead of 10), the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, has built the World League, which lasts for a month and a half, to become the most prestigious event of yearly meetings of the international sports calendar.

A total of 112 matches in 46 cities worldwide are in the competition programme that assembles the men’s Volleyball elite in 4 Pools of 4 teams in the Intercontinental Round before the Final round in Poland (from 25-30 June in Katowice).

Italy (Pool A) Russia (Pool B), Yugoslavia (Pool C) and Brazil (Pool D) are the top seeds of the four pools that make up the Intercontinental Round. The winner and the 2nd placed team of each of the 4 Intercontinental Round pools will qualify for the Final Round. If Poland (organiser of the finals and automatically qualified as host nation) is not among these 8 teams, they will replace the lowest 2nd placed team of the Intercontinental Round.

The Italians having won the World League title a record eight times as well as $US10,500,000 in prizemoney will launch their campaign for a ninth success at home in Palermo against the Argentineans.

In each pool, the 16 teams will each play 4 matches (two home and two away) against the three other teams. The 8 teams qualified for the Final Round will meet in two pools to determine the Final Four that will proceed to cross semi-finals and then followed by the final.

The cumulative number of spectators for the 112 matches should reach 600,000 (430,000 last year) and the strong television disposition for as many channels as for participating countries is envisaged to reach some 750 million potential television spectators.

For further information, please contact:

Federation Internationale De Volleyball (FIVB)
Press and Communication Department
Tel: + 41 21 345 35 35
Fax: + 41 21 345 35 45
E-mail: communication@mail.fivb.ch