FIVB recently released the criteria for the qualification system of the Olympics 2020 including the team quotas and the qualification events. One big change is that: the Champion of 2019 World Cup will not clinch a direct ticket to the Tokyo Olympic.
A total of 12 teams, in the men’s and women’s events, including host team Japan will be featured in the 2020 Olympic Games due to be held in Tokyo between July 24 and August 9, 2020 with each qualified team allowed a maximum of 12 players.
In terms of the qualification places, two Olympic qualification events will be organised, with six International Olympic Qualification Tournaments (IOQT) due to take place in 2019. Twenty-four highest-ranked NFs as per the FIVB World Ranking as of January 1, 2019, not yet qualified, will be eligible for those six events.
The 24 teams shall be placed into six pools of four teams apiece using the serpentine system, a method employed in the organisation of a competition to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools.
As teams with World Ranking 1, 12, 13 and 24 will be competing in Pool A, Pool B will comprise teams Ranked 2, 11, 14 and 23. Pool C will consist of teams with World Ranking 3, 10, 15 and 22, while teams Ranked 4, 9, 16 and 21 are in Pool D. Pool F features teams with World Ranking 5, 8, 17 and 20, with Pool G comprising teams Ranked 6, 7, 18 and 19.
Only the highest-placed team in each pool will win berths for the Olympics, totalling 6 teams.
The remaining 5 teams will come from the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournaments (COQT). Five tournaments will take place, one in each Confederation. They comprise AVC (Asia), CAVB (Africa), CEV (Europe), CSV (South America) and NORCECA (North and Central America).
National Federations which have already obtained one quota place for their NOC through an International Olympic Tournament will not be able to participate in the Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament of their respective Confederation.
Only the highest-placed National Federation of each five Continental Olympic Qualification Tournaments (AVC OQT, NORCECA OQT, CEV OQT, CSV OQT, CAVB OQT) will make the cut for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, totalling 5 teams.
Source: FIVB
