Competition Formula

Intercontinental Rounds: June 12 to July 18, 2009, various cities

The pools

The 16 participating teams are divided into four pools of four teams. Each pool plays a home and away round-robin tournament.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

USA

Serbia

Russia

Brazil

Italy

France

Bulgaria

Poland

China

Korea

Japan

Finland

Netherlands

Argentina

Cuba

Venezuela

The Intercontinental Rounds take place over six weekends from June 12 to July 18, 2009. Each team plays two matches against the same team on separate days over the same weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

The last week of the Intercontinental Rounds will be played from Wednesday to Saturday to allow the teams to travel and rest for the Final Round. 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 rankings

The team rankings per pool are determined by the points total (2 points for a victory, 1 point for a loss) after all matches have been played in the Intercontinental Rounds. The top-ranked team in each pool qualifies for the Final Round.

The host team automatically qualifies for the Final Round, together with one wild-card team designated by the FIVB. If the host team for the Final Round is ranked first in its pool, the second-ranked team in this pool will qualify for the Final Round.

In the event of a tie at the end of the Intercontinental Rounds, the teams will be classified according to the total number of points scored during all sets divided by the total number of points lost (points ratio system).

Final Round: Wednesday, July 22 to Sunday, July 26, 2009 - Belgrade, SERBIA

 The Final Round will be played by the six qualified teams over five days (10 matches in total), with the final matches (gold-medal match and bronze-medal match) on Sunday, July 26.

QUALIFIED TEAMS: The organiser, the winner of each pool and a wild card chosen by the FIVB qualify for the Final Round.

TEAM DISTRIBUTION: The teams are divided into two pools - "E" and "F" - consisting of three teams each.

POOL MATCHES: Over the first three days of the Final Round, all teams of the same pool will play against each other, with one day of rest for each team.

TEAM RANKING BY POOL: The three teams in each pool will be ranked as per normal FIVB procedure and the top two teams of each pool will play in crossed semi-finals (E1 vs. F2, F1 vs. E2). The third-placed team of each pool will be eliminated and ranked joint-fifth in the World League.

FINAL FOUR: On the fourth day, the winner of each pool will meet the second-placed team in the crossed semi-finals. On the final day, the winners of the semi-finals will compete for the gold medal while the semi-final losers play to determine the bronze medal and fourth-placed position.