Poland to host Serbia in special opening match
WARSAW, Poland, January 27, 2014 – Poland will host Serbia at
the National Stadium in a dream opening match of the FIVB
Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014 on August 30
after the successful staging of the Drawing of Lots at the
Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science on Monday.
With the 24 participating teams successfully drawn across the
four pools, Poland Volleyball Federation President Miroslaw
Przedełski confirmed that Poland will host Serbia in the 58,000
capacity football stadium to open the FIVB Volleyball Men’s
World Championship Poland 2014.
The Volleyball World Championships return to an open stadium
after more than sixty years. Moscow 1952 was the last time the
Volleyball World Championships were played in an open stadium.
“It will be one of the most beautiful World Championship matches
ever,” Mr Przedełski said. “We are going to show the world what
volleyball is. We haven’t had the World Championships before so
this will be a special occasion for Poland.”
The Pool’s composition is as follows:
Pool A:
Poland, Argentina, Serbia, Australia, Africa-3 and Venezuela.
Pool B:
Brazil, Norceca-2, Germany, Africa-1, Korea and Finland.
Pool C:
Russia, Bulgaria, Norceca-3, Africa-2, China and
Norceca-5
Pool D:
Italy, Norceca-1, Iran, France, Belgium and Norceca-4
The complete first round schedule will be confirmed in the
coming days. The host cities for the tournament phases were
announced.
First Round
Group A in Wroclaw
Group B in Katowice
Group C in Gdansk
Group D in Krakow
Second Round
Group E in Lodz and Bydgoszck
Group F in Katowice and Wroclaw
Third round
Group G in Krakow and Lodz
Semifinals and Finals in
Katowice
With the opening match launching the tournament, the Group A and
D matches of the World Championship will begin on Sunday, August
31, with Groups B and C beginning their bid for the Championship
title a day later. The second round of the tournament will take
place from September 10 to 14 with group E and F matches. The
final six teams will battle it out on the courts during the
third round from September 16 to 18.
The top two teams from each third round pool will then advance
to the semifinals and finals on September 20 and 21 with - in
the only difference to the FIVB Volleyball Women's World
Championship Italy 2014 competition formula - the third ranked
teams in the third round pools also playing off for fifth place.
The men’s and women FIVB Volleyball World Championships are
staged every four years and are the most prestigious event in
international volleyball.
Brazil sealed their third straight FIVB Volleyball Men’s World
Championship title in Italy in 2010 after beating Cuba in the
final. Serbia completed the podium after beating the home side
in the bronze medal match.
The world’s best 24 teams will compete in the FIVB Volleyball
Men’s World Championship Poland 2014, which will take place from
August 30 to September 21. |