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The Volleyball World Championship (VWC) is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). This international competition is separated into a Men’s VWC and a Women’s VWC.

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Initially, the championships were hosted at undetermined intervals, but since 1962 the FIVB have established the competition to every four years.

The structure of the championship involves a three year qualification phase. From that, there will be 24 teams that qualify for what is known as the World Championships Finals. The entire event takes place in one of the qualifying team’s home country over the course of a month.

For the men’s competitions, there have been 18 world championships. Russia has won the event 6 titles; Brazil and Italy have three titles each; Czechia and Poland, have two titles each; Germany and U.S, have on title each. The next event will be hosted in 2018 by Italy or Bulgaria

For the women’s competition, there have been 17 world championships. Again, Russia has dominated the sport with 7 titles; Japan and Cuba have 3 titles each; China has 2 titles; and italy, and United States have one title each.

Interesting Fact: The Russian male team is the only team that has played in every tournament.

The next events:

• 2022 Sep 23 - Oct 15, World Volleyball Championships (women), Netherlands & Poland.
• 2022 Aug 26 - Sep 11, World Volleyball Championships (men), Poland & Slovenia.
• 2026 World Volleyball Championships (men)
• 2026 World Volleyball Championships (women)

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Related Pages

• Other major Volleyball events
• Volleyball at the Olympics
• More about the sport of volleyball