SportsTravel

The Volleyball Nations League will expand to 18 national teams starting in 2025, alongside format changes aimed at elevating the experience for athletes, fans and stakeholders.

The revised Nations League structure involves dividing 18 teams into three groups of six for each of the three competition weeks. In this new format of the women’s and men’s leagues, each team is set to play 12 matches, amounting to four matches per team per week.

The top eight teams at the end of the preliminary phase in each competition advance to the quarterfinals, with the host team to have a guaranteed berth as the rest of each event will be single-elimination. The competition schedule will also be streamlined, reducing match days from six to five with an additional week of rest in the middle of tournament.

There will be no relegation for the 2024 participating teams, while the winner of the 2024 Volleyball Challenger Cup, plus the top ranked not-yet-qualified team as per the world rankings will join the league in 2025.

The 2024 schedule includes Arlington, Texas,  hosting women’s play from May 28 through June 2. The Nations League events will play a major role in determining the last national teams that will qualify for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris; the result of each match of the tournament’s preliminary phase will impact the world rankings, which will determine the teams to occupy the last five spots in the Games.

The enhancements to the league format were proposed by FIVB after feedback and insights from key stakeholders. The 2028 VNL only will see a condensed format to align with the Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles and will be defined at a later stage.

The expansion comes as Volleyball TV’s cumulative global audience grew by 48% from 2022 to 2023 and the sponsorship value of the VNL increased by 27%. Overall television viewership increased by 13% to 630 million and the organization had a social media reach of 214 million people.