The men’s and women’s FIVB Volleyball World Championships are staged every four years and are the most prestigious event in international volleyball.
The first FIVB Volleyball World Championships were organised in 1949 for men and 1952 for women and have remained the biggest event in volleyball, alongside the Olympic Games.
A record number of 279 teams participated in the qualification process for the 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Championships. This total, coming from 166 national federations across the five FIVB confederations, represents an increase of 90 teams from the previous best of 214 teams from 119 federations for the 2010 World Championships (compared with 102 in 2006, 72 in 2002 and 63 in 1998).
There were 127 teams that played in the Women’s World Championship qualification process for the 2014 edition. The world’s best 24 teams will compete in the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014, which takes place from September 23 to October 12 2014.
Qualifying tournaments are held within the five FIVB Confederations (AVC, CAVB, CEV, CSV and NORCECA) to determine the 23 participants who will join Italy. The qualification process started in May 2012 and will run until June 2014.
As per the FIVB sports regulations, the number of spots awarded by the FIVB for each Confederation for the next World Championships is as follows:
| Distribution of vacancies per Confederation |
| AVC |
Asia |
4 |
| CAVB |
Africa |
2 |
| CEV |
Europe |
Italy(Hosts) + 9 |
| CSV |
South America |
2 |
| NORCECA |
North, Carribean and Central America |
6 |
QUALIFICATION PROCESS
| AVC |
| NFs registered |
15 |
| Nb. of tournaments |
5 |
| Period |
Qualification Tournaments (4 spots)
No 1st Round
June 14-30, 2013
2nd Round
September 4-October 1, 2013
3rd Round |
| CAVB |
| NFs registered |
38 |
| Nb. of tournaments |
19 |
| Period |
Qualification Tournaments (2 spots)
May-July 2013
No 1st Round
October-November 2013
2nd Round
January 2014
3rd Round |
| CEV |
| NFs registered |
41 + Italy |
| Nb. of tournaments |
13 |
| Period |
September 6-14, 2013 CEV European Champs (2 spots)
Qualifications tournaments
(7 spots)
May 24-26, 2013
1st Round
October 2-6, 2013
2nd Round
January 3-5, 2014
3rd Round |
| CSV |
| NFs registered |
7 |
| Nb. of tournaments |
2 |
| Period |
September, 2013
South American Champs
(2 spots) |
| NORCECA |
| Teams registered |
39 |
| Nb. of tournaments |
20 |
| Period |
May 2012 - July 2014
Qualification Tournaments
(5 spots)
Playoff Tournament
(1 spot) |