FIVB Senior World Rankings

The FIVB Senior World Rankings is a ranking system for men's and women's national teams in volleyball. The teams of the member nations of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), volleyball's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIVB-recognised full international matches. The rankings are used in international competitions to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools. Specific procedures for seeding and pooling are established by the FIVB in each competition's formula, but the method usually employed is the serpentine system.

The ranking system has been revamped in 2020, responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams. The old version of the ranking system was finally used on 31 January 2020.

As of 23 July 2023, the highest ranked team in the men's category is Poland, while in the women's category is Turkey.

Previous calculation method

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The system of point attribution for the selected FIVB World and Official Competitions below is as follows:[1]

  • Olympic Games and qualifying tournaments: included for 4 years and points are also granted for the qualification matches, to the best non-qualified teams.
  • World Championship and qualifying tournaments: included for 4 years and points are also granted for the qualification matches, to the best non-qualified teams.
  • World Cup: included for 4 years
  • World Grand Prix: included for 1 year
  • World League: included for 1 year

Current calculation method

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In 2019, FIVB collaborated with Hypercube Business Innovation of the Netherlands to design a new world ranking platform. The previous calculation method had a problem of circularity in the international volleyball calendar: only countries who participate in the major volleyball events can earn ranking points, whilst the number of ranking points of countries also determines seeding and access of teams for major events. This unfair principle does not contribute to the sporting and commercial quality of volleyball.[2]

On 1 February 2020, the new ranking system will be implemented and will take into account all results from 1 January 2019.[3] The system will be consistently updated to reflect the latest results and performances. The new World Ranking considers the match results from all official competitions:

The rankings outcome of each match depends on two main factors:

  • The playing strength of the teams competing
  • The actual match performance or final result of the match

Ranking Procedure

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It is based on the zero-sum system, like CONCACAF Ranking Index or FIFA World ranking, where, after each game, points will be added to or subtracted from a team's rating according to the formula:[4]

 

where:

  •   – the team's number of World Ranking scores after the game
  •   – the team's number of World Ranking scores before the game
  •   – the match importance:
    • 10.0 – Other annual official events organized by Continental Confederations
    • 17.5 – Confederations' Championship qualifying
    • 20.0 – FIVB Challenger Cup
    • 35.0 – Olympic Games qualifying, FIVB World Cup and Confederations' Championship
    • 40.0 – FIVB Nations League
    • 45.0 – FIVB World Championship
    • 50.0 – Olympic Games
  •   – the result of the game depended on match and sets won (3-0, 3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-3 or 0-3); see below
  •   – the expected result of the game has the value between -2 and +2. If the match is completely balanced, the expected result is 0. The bigger the surprise, the more points are transferred; see below for calculation details.

Match result

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Expected match result

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The expected results is then calculated as   where   is the probability of the outcome   obtained using the following model (known as Ordered probit):

Team A win 3–0
 
Team A win 3–1
 
Team A win 3–2
 
Team A lose 2–3
 
Team A lose 1–3
 
Team A lose 0–3
 

where   is the Cumulative distribution function of the Normal distribution, and   are the cut-points

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

set so that   is the probability of the outcome   between two equal strength opponents (that is when  ), which is derived from the actual match results of the past decade.

The parameter   represents the scaled difference of the teams rankings

 

where:

  •   – the team A's number of World Ranking scores before the game
  •   – the team B's number of World Ranking scores before the game

Examples

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Before the match at the FIVB Volleyball World Championship (K = 45), Brazil (Team A) is ranked number 1 with a 415 WR score and Japan (Team B) is ranked number 11 with a 192 WR score.

Strength difference between Brazil and Japan
 
Expected match result


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  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  


Expected match result for Brazil:

 

Expected match result for Japan:

 

World and Continental Rankings

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The five Continental Rankings filter the World Ranking points won and lost in matches played between teams from the same Continental Confederation.

  • Intercontinental Tournaments – calculated in World Rankings, but some matches can be calculated in Continental Rankings
Examples

Japan (Asian Volleyball Confederation) vs Italy (Confédération Européenne de Volleyball)
The points calculated in FIVB World Rankings.

Japan (Asian Volleyball Confederation) vs South Korea (Asian Volleyball Confederation)
The points calculated in FIVB World Rankings, and AVC Continental Rankings.

FIVB World Rankings

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Current men's top teams

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Top 30 rankings as of 30 August 2024[5]
Rank Change Team Points
1     Poland 401.31
2   2   France 378.07
3   3   United States 365.87
4   1   Slovenia 352.5
5   2   Italy 346.23
6   3   Japan 338.12
7     Brazil 305.87
8   3   Germany 274.38
9   1   Argentina 266.94
10     Serbia 259.28
11   2   Canada 254.46
12     Cuba 249.34
13     Netherlands 204.81
14     Ukraine 196
15     Iran 185.07
16     Belgium 183.24
17     Turkey 175.28
18     Czech Republic 168.95
19     Bulgaria 161.06
20     Egypt 156.94
21     Qatar 151.46
22     Portugal 147.16
23   1   Finland 146.72
24   1   Tunisia 145.09
25   1   China 144.02
26   1   Romania 143.07
27   2   Chile 139.14
28     South Korea 138.48
29   6   Croatia 136.4
30     Puerto Rico 135.23
*Change from 10 July 2024
Complete rankings at volleyballworld.com

Current women's top teams

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Top 30 rankings as of 30 August 2024[6]
Rank Change Team Points
1     Italy 437.03
2     Brazil 407.09
3     United States 362.27
4     Turkey 352.61
5     China 350.3
6     Poland 349.75
7     Japan 325.18
8     Canada 284.76
9     Netherlands 283.99
10     Serbia 280.42
11     Dominican Republic 260.54
12     Germany 222.03
13     Thailand 194.91
14     Belgium 190.98
15     Czech Republic 189.61
16     Puerto Rico 182.58
17     Argentina 180.96
18     Ukraine 172.15
19     France 157.5
20     Bulgaria 153.92
21     Colombia 152.37
22     Kenya 152.15
23     Cuba 145.17
24     Sweden 138.57
25     Mexico 138.42
26     Slovenia 137.47
27     Cameroon 135.69
28     Slovakia 133.33
29     Spain 123.31
30     Greece 117.4
*Change from 10 July 2024
Complete rankings at volleyballworld.com

Historic men's leaders

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For historical men's FIVB rankings from October 2005 to present.[7]

Historic women's leaders

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For historical women's FIVB rankings from September 2005 to present.[8]

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^ "FIVB World Ranking system". FIVB. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. ^ "Ranking FIVB (2019)". Hypercube. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  3. ^ "FIVB to introduce new World Ranking system for 2020". FIVB. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  4. ^ "HOW IT WORKS" (PDF). FIVB. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  5. ^ "The FIVB World Ranking". FIVB. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  6. ^ "The FIVB Women's World Ranking". FIVB. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  7. ^ "Tableau Public". public.tableau.com.
  8. ^ "Tableau Public". public.tableau.com.