ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship and Women's Volleyball World Cup 2018

The 2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship was the eighteenth edition of the event, contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. For the first time since 1974, no team from North America failed to reach the quarterfinals.

The championship was held in Mexico, with a total of 24 teams participating in the final round. As defending champions, Serbia was set as well as the host country. The United States and Italy were also among the top contenders, along with China.

The tournament began with a preliminary round in four groups with six teams each. The internationally usual point rating applied: with a 3-0 or 3-1 win, the winner received three points, while the loser went empty. In a 3-2 match, there were two points for the winner and one for the loser. Decisive for placement in the group was the number of wins; if tied, first the number of points decided, then the set quotient (division procedure), and finally the ball point quotient (division procedure).

The four best teams from each group advanced to the second round, which took place in two groups with eight participants each. They retained their points from the first round. From these two groups, the three top teams proceeded to the third round, where they were divided into new groups. The two best teams of these groups qualified for the semi-finals.

The winners of the semi-finals played the final, while the losers competed for third place in games held at Yokohama. In Japan, all matches were broadcast live on Sportdeutschland.TV and as video-on-demand.

Qualification for the championship had taken place in various formats since 2016. The European qualification round involved eight teams from smaller countries competing in two groups of four, with winners advancing to the next round. The second qualifying round took place from May 23 to June 4, 2017, and was played in six groups with six teams each.

The continental qualifiers have been held in different formats since 2016. In Europe, eight places were contested, while North America had six spots available. Asia and Oceania had four spots, Africa had two, and South America also had two. The qualification process