Change in sight for the next Olympic volleyball tournament. The body in charge of the discipline, the FIVB, has announced in a press release that it has modified the competition formula for the Paris 2024 Games. The first round will be played in three groups of four teams, rather than two groups of six as in previous editions. The top two teams in each group, plus the two best third-placed teams, will advance to the quarter-finals. The knockout phase remains unchanged. This new formula, inspired by that of basketball at the Tokyo 2020 Games, was chosen by the FIVB to increase “the value and enthusiasm” around each of the matches. It has the advantage of reducing the number of matches in the preliminary phase, with only three matches instead of five in the previous version. The FIVB also explains that the IOC Executive Board has validated its qualification process for the Paris 2024 Games. The two tournaments, men’s and women’s, will have 12 teams. France is automatically qualified as the host country. The remaining eleven places will be awarded through a two-stage qualification process. Six places will be up for grabs at the Olympic Qualification Tournaments (OQTs) in September-October 2023. These will bring together the top 24 teams in the world rankings who have not yet qualified. They will be divided into three pools of eight teams, with the top two teams in each pool earning their ticket to the Paris 2024 Games. The remaining five places will be filled by selecting the first five teams not yet qualified at the end of the preliminary phase of the 2024 Nations League.
