Change in sight for the Volleyball Nations League (VNL). Volleyball World, the commercial and events branch of the international federation (FIVB), announces that the annual competition will have 18 teams from the 2025 edition, for both men and women, two more than in the current formula. The format of the competition will remain unchanged, with a first qualifying phase, then an eight-team final. But the first phase will now extend over nine weeks, alternating women and men, with a week break between the second and third weeks. The main change concerns the rule of accession and relegation. In the current formula, the teams are “recurring” or “challengers”. The former are guaranteed to keep their place from one season to the next, unlike the latter, who are likely to leave the competition depending on their ranking. From the 2025 financial year, only the team ranked in last position at the end of the qualifying phase will be relegated for the following season. According to Volleyball World, the change in formula was imposed by the success of the 2023 edition, whose cumulative global audience increased by 48% and the partnership by 27%. On television, VNL 2023 was followed by 630 million people around the world.
