FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup
International men's volleyball competition for national teams
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The FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup was an international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The Challenger Cup served as a qualifying tournament for the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), with the winner earning the right to participate in the following year's VNL.[1][2]
| Most recent season or competition: 2024 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup | |
| Sport | Volleyball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 |
| First season | 2018 |
| Ceased | 2024 |
| CEO |  Ary Graça |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Continent | International (FIVB) |
| Last champions |  China(1st title) |
| Most titles | China Cuba Portugal Slovenia Turkey(1 title each) |
| Streaming partner | Volleyball TV |
| Promotion to | Nations League |
| Official website | Volleyball Challenger Cup |
A corresponding tournament for women's national teams was the FIVB Women's Volleyball Challenger Cup.
History
The Challenger Cup was first announced in October 2017 (alongside the announcement of the Nations League) as a joint project between the FIVB, the IMG and 21 national federations.[3] The inaugural tournament was played between 20 and 24 June 2018 in Matosinhos, Portugal. The Portugal team won the tournament, defeating Czech Republic counterpart in the final and qualified for the 2019 Nations League.
The 2020 and 2021 editions of the Challenger Cup were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the tournament returned in 2022, it had a new knockout formula and the number of participating teams had increased from six to eight.[2]
In 2024, FIVB announced that the world ranking would replace the Challenger Cup as the qualifier for the 2026 Nations League and the tournament was discontinued.[4]
Format
2018–2019
The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in a round-robin format. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The first ranked teams play against the second ranked teams in this round. The winners of the semifinals advance to compete for the Challenger Cup title. The champion team will qualify for the next year's Nations League as a challenger team.[1][5]
2022–2024
The eight qualified teams play in a knockout stage format. The top four teams in the quarterfinals will qualify for the semifinals. The winner of the quarterfinal 1 will play a semifinal match against the winner of the quarterfinal 4 and the winner of the quarterfinal 2 will play a semifinal match against the winner of the quarterfinal 3. The winners of the semifinals will advance to compete for the Challenger Cup title. The champion team will qualify for the next year's Nations league as a challenger team.[6]
Qualification
Hosts
Appearance
- Legend
- 1st – Champions
- 2nd – Runners-up
- 3rd – Third place
- 4th – Fourth place
- • – Did not enter / Did not qualify
- – Hosts
- Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament
| Team | 2018 (6) | 2019 (6) |  2022 (8) |  2023 (8) | 2024 (8) | Total |
 Australia | • | • | 5th | • | • | 1 |
 Belarus | • | 3rd | • | • | • | 1 |
 Belgium | • | • | • | • | 2nd | 1 |
 Chile | 5th | 6th | 8th | 4th | 7th | 5 |
| China | • | • | • | 5th | 1st | 2 |
 Croatia | • | • | • | • | 5th | 1 |
| Cuba | 4th | 2nd | 1st | • | • | 3 |
 Czech Republic | 2nd | • | 4th | • | • | 2 |
 Dominican Republic | • | • | • | 6th | • | 1 |
 Egypt | • | 5th | • | • | 3rd | 2 |
 Estonia | 3rd | • | • | • | • | 1 |
 Kazakhstan | 5th | • | • | • | • | 1 |
 Mexico | • | • | • | • | 8th | 1 |
| Portugal | 1st | • | • | • | • | 1 |
| Qatar | • | • | 7th | 2nd | 6th | 3 |
| Slovenia | • | 1st | • | • | • | 1 |
| South Korea | • | • | 3rd | • | • | 1 |
 Thailand | • | • | • | 7th | • | 1 |
 Tunisia | • | • | 6th | 8th | • | 2 |
| Turkey | • | 4th | 2nd | 1st | • | 3 |
 Ukraine | • | • | • | 3rd | 4th | 2 |
Results summary
| Year | Host | Final | 3rd place match | Teams | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Score | Runners-up | 3rd place | Score | 4th place | ||||||
| 2018 Details |
Matosinhos |
Portugal |
3–1 | Czech Republic |
Estonia |
3–0 | Cuba |
6 | |||
| 2019 Details |
Ljubljana |
Slovenia |
3–0 | Cuba |
Belarus |
3–1 | Turkey |
6 | |||
| 2020 | Gondomar |
Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||||
| 2021 | |||||||||||
| 2022 Details |
Seoul |
Cuba |
3–1 | Turkey |
South Korea |
3–2 | Czech Republic |
8 | |||
| 2023 Details |
Doha |
Turkey |
3–2 | Qatar |
Ukraine |
3–0 | Chile |
8 | |||
| 2024 Details |
Linyi |
China |
3–1 | Belgium |
Egypt |
3–2 | Ukraine |
8 | |||
Medals summary
Nations League qualifier
| Year | Relegated Challenger Team | Remaining Challenger Teams | Challenger Cup Winner | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | South Korea  |
Australia  |
 Bulgaria |
 Canada |
Only 4 challenger teams in the tournament | Portugal  | |||
| 2019 | Portugal |
Slovenia | |||||||
| 2021 | None[7][8] |  Netherlands[a] |
Slovenia |
Cancelled[9] | |||||
| 2022 | Australia |
China[b] |
Cuba | ||||||
| 2023 | China |
Cuba |
Turkey | ||||||
| 2024 | None[4] | China | |||||||
See also
Notes
- Netherlands replaced China after the decision of the Chinese Volleyball Association to withdraw its national men's team due to financial limitations and travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
- China replaced Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Russia was out of the Nations League.[10]