2023 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League explained

Competition:	FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
Continent:	World
Host:	Poland
City:	Gdańsk (final round)
Dates:	6 June – 23 July 2023
Teams:	16
Confederations:	4
Venues:	7
Cities:	7
Champions:	POL
Title Number:	1
Second:	USA
Third:	JPN
Fourth:	ITA
Mvp:	Paweł Zatorski
Setter:	Micah Christenson
Opposite Spiker:	Łukasz Kaczmarek
Libero:	Paweł Zatorski
Matches:	104
Website:	Volleyball Nations League
Last:	2022 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
Next:	2024 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
Year:	2023

The 2023 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League was the fifth edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League, an annual men's international volleyball tournament. The competition was held from 6 June to 23 July 2023, with the final round taking place at the Ergo Arena, Gdańsk, Poland.^{[1] [2]}

Following the results of 2022 Nations League and 2022 Challenger Cup, Australia were replaced by debutants Cuba in this edition.^[3]

Finals host and home team Poland won their first VNL title after defeating the United States in four sets.^[4] It was the United States' third silver medal. Japan defeated Italy in a tie-breaker match and claimed the bronze medal.^[5] Paweł Zatorski from Poland was named the MVP of the tournament.^[6]

Qualification

Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Ten of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Other six teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament.^{[7] [8]} Cuba replaced Australia after winning the 2022 Challenger Cup.

Country	Confederation	Designation	Previous appearances			Previous best performance
			Total	First	Last
	CSV	Core team	4	2018	2022	7th place (2019)
	CSV	Core team	4	2018	2022	Champions (2021)
	CEV	Challenger team	4	2018	2022	11th place (2018)
	NORCECA	Challenger team	4	2018	2022	7th place (2018)
	AVC	Challenger team	3	2018	2022	13th place (2022)
	NORCECA	Challenger team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	4	2018	2022	Champions (2022)
	CEV	Core team	4	2018	2022	9th place (2018)
	AVC	Core team	4	2018	2022	5th place (2019)
	CEV	Core team	4	2018	2022	4th place (2022)
	AVC	Core team	4	2018	2022	5th place (2022)
	CEV	Challenger team	2	2021	2022	8th place (2022)
	CEV	Core team	4	2018	2022	Runners-up (2021)
	CEV	Core team	4	2018	2022	5th place (2018)
	CEV	Challenger team	2	2021	2022	4th place (2021)
	NORCECA	Core team	4	2018	2022	Runners-up (2019, 2022)

Format

Preliminary round

The format of play is the same as edition 2022. The new format will see 16 men's teams competing in pools of 8 teams during the pool phase. Each team plays 12 matches during the pool stage. Eight teams will then move into the final knockout phase of the competition.

Final round

The VNL Finals will see the top eight teams moving directly to the knockout phase which will consist of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals and the bronze and gold medal matches.

Final 8 direct elimination formula:

• The first ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the eighth ranked team, the second ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the seventh ranked team, the third ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the sixth ranked team, the fourth ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the fifth ranked team.
• The national team of the hosting territory of the event will have a guaranteed berth for the Final round. If the host nation does not finish in the top eight in Preliminary round, they will replace the eighth place team and play as the eighth seed.

Pool composition

The overview of pools was released on 11 November 2022.^{[1] [9]}

Week 1		Week 2		Week 3
width=16%	Pool 1 Canada	width=16%	Pool 2 Japan	width=16%	Pool 3 Netherlands	width=16%	Pool 4 France	width=16%	Pool 5 United States	width=16%	Pool 6 Philippines

Venues

Preliminary round

width=100% colspan=2	Week 1
width=50%	Pool 1	width=50%	Pool 2
Ottawa, Canada	Nagoya, Japan
TD Place Arena	Nippon Gaishi Hall
Capacity: 9,500	Capacity: 10,000
width=100% colspan=2	Week 2
width=50%	Pool 3	width=50%	Pool 4
Rotterdam, Netherlands	Orléans, France
Rotterdam Ahoy	CO'MET Arena
Capacity: 16,426	Capacity: 10,000
width=100% colspan=2	Week 3
width=50%	Pool 5	width=50%	Pool 6
Anaheim, United States	Pasay, Philippines
Anaheim Convention Center	SM Mall of Asia Arena
Capacity: 7,500	Capacity: 15,000

Final round

All matches
Gdańsk, Poland
Ergo Arena
Capacity: 11,409

Competition schedule

●

Preliminary round

●

Final round

Pool standing procedure

1. Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
2. In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most points gained per match as follows:
   • Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser
   • Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser
   • Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser
3. If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order:
   • Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost.
   • Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets.
   • If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

Squads

See main article: 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League squads.

Preliminary round

Ranking

Week 1

Pool 1

• All times are Eastern Daylight Time .

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Pool 2

• All times are Japan Standard Time .

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Week 2

Pool 3

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool 4

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 3

Pool 5

• All times are Pacific Daylight Time .

Pool 6

• All times are Philippine Standard Time .

Final round

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Quarterfinals

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Semifinals

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3rd place match

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Final

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Final standing

width=40	Rank	width=180	Team
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Source: VNL 2023 final standings

14–man roster
Jakub Popiwczak, Łukasz Kaczmarek, Bartosz Kurek (c), Wilfredo León, Bartosz Bednorz, Aleksander Śliwka, Grzegorz Łomacz, Jakub Kochanowski, Kamil Semeniuk, Paweł Zatorski, Marcin Janusz, Mateusz Bieniek, Tomasz Fornal, Norbert Huber
Head coach
Nikola Grbić

Awards

• Most valuable player

• Best setter

• Best outside spikers

• Best middle blockers

• Best opposite spiker

• Best libero

• Fair play team award

Statistics leaders

Preliminary round

Statistics leaders correct at the end of preliminary round.^[10]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Attacks	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Nimir Abdel-Aziz	184	8	25	217
2	Jesus Herrera Jaime	180	11	21	212
3	Yuki Ishikawa	177	12	16	205
4	Zhang Jingyin	162	22	17	201
5	Dražen Luburić	172	7	13	192

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Nimir Abdel-Aziz	184	66	105	51.83	355
2	Jesus Herrera Jaime	180	83	87	51.43	350
3	Yuki Ishikawa	177	44	114	52.84	335
4	Dražen Luburić	172	66	118	48.86	352
5	Zhang Jingyin	162	60	112	48.50	334

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Agustín Loser	51	61	44	4.25	156
2	Mohammad Mousavi	35	55	38	2.92	128
3	Javier Concepción	29	61	49	2.42	139
4	Petar Krsmanović	29	41	28	2.42	98
5	Aleksandar Nedeljković	29	43	56	2.42	128

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Nimir Abdel-Aziz	25	52	101	2.08	179
2	Yuri Romanò	21	39	108	1.75	168
3	Jesus Herrera Jaime	21	52	123	1.75	196
4	Luciano Palonsky	19	44	133	1.58	196
5	Tine Urnaut	18	34	129	1.50	181

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Bruno Rezende	230	6	595	19.17	831
3	Micah Christenson	225	3	406	18.75	634
3	Luciano De Cecco	223	4	505	27.88	732
4	Masahiro Sekita	222	3	709	18.50	934
5	Georgi Seganov	215	6	596	17.92	817

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Jani Kovačič	119	31	15	9.92	165
2		108	58	14	9.00	180
3	Tomohiro Yamamoto	96	30	18	8.00	144
4	Jenia Grebennikov	93	35	11	11.62	139
5	Robbert Andringa	83	35	13	6.92	131

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Yuki Ishikawa	61	10	131	30.20	202
2	Moritz Reichert	54	12	127	27.98	193
3	Kévin Tillie	52	6	90	35.14	148
4	Santiago Danani	50	5	100	32.26	155
5	Ran Takahashi	47	9	122	26.40	178

Final round

Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.^[11]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Attacks	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Yūki Ishikawa	60	5	5	70
2	Matthew Anderson	46	0	3	49
3	Łukasz Kaczmarek	40	6	1	47
4	Aleksander Śliwka	37	4	3	44
5	Thomas Jaeschke	33	6	2	41

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Yūki Ishikawa	60	12	41	53.10	113
2	Matthew Anderson	46	9	29	54.76	84
3	Łukasz Kaczmarek	40	7	21	58.82	68
4	Aleksander Śliwka	37	7	18	59.68	62
5	Thomas Jaeschke	33	11	27	46.48	71

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
1	Roberto Russo	9	10	16	3.00	35
2	Gianluca Galassi	7	15	14	2.33	36
3	Wilfredo León	7	7	8	2.33	22
4	Maxwell Holt	6	13	15	2.00	34
5	Thomas Jaeschke	6	3	2	2.00	11

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Mateusz Bieniek	8	6	33	2.67	47
2	Kento Miyaura	7	7	27	2.33	41
3	Alessandro Michieletto	5	5	35	1.67	45
4	Gianluca Galassi	5	9	22	1.67	36
5	Yūki Ishikawa	5	10	28	1.67	43

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Micah Christenson	100	0	156	33.33	256
2	Simone Giannelli	75	1	151	25.00	227
3	Masahiro Sekita	74	0	203	24.67	277
4	Marcin Janusz	65	1	162	21.67	228
5	Antoine Brizard	25	0	46	25.00	71

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Tomohiro Yamamoto	35	13	1	11.67	49
2	Paweł Zatorski	26	8	3	8.67	37
3	Thomas Jaeschke	24	8	2	8.00	34
4	Erik Shoji	24	16	2	8.00	42
5	Alessandro Michieletto	24	6	2	8.00	32

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Ran Takahashi	16	5	42	25.40	63
2	Fabio Balaso	15	3	35	28.30	53
3	Tomohiro Yamamoto	15	2	36	28.30	53
4	Torey Defalco	13	5	42	21.67	60
5	Erik Shoji	12	4	34	24.00	50

Controversies

Iran team's visa issues in the United States

After the announcement of the host venues and the games schedule, the president of the Iranian Volleyball Federation sent a letter to the FIVB expressing their concerns about the fact that the Iranian team is scheduled to play their games on the third week of the VNL in the USA territory. They stated that five members of the Iranian national team required further examination and additional documentation for visa issuance. The Iranian authorities also expressed their desire to host the USA's leg instead, or they might boycott the leg by not sending anyone to the USA.^[12]

The passports of the Iranian national team members were resubmitted to the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey for a visa issuance. After necessary checks, visas were issued for the 12 players, with only four days left until the start of Week 3 of the VNL. However, five players including Amin Esmaeilnezhad were not granted visas. This situation also happened with the coach of the Iranian national team, Behrouz Ataei, who presented an incomplete documentation. After the second week round in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the rejected five players had to return to Tehran.^[13]

After failed negotiations with the American authorities, the FIVB Executive Committee specifically examined the question of the visas for the Iranian team and approved an unprecedented decision. If the United States government does not issue the visas to the key members of the Iranian team, the points of Iran and its opponents in the third week of the games would not be accounted for on the world rankings, but the results of these games would count exclusively for the tournament.^[14]

See also

• 2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League
• 2023 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup
• 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup

External links

• Fédération Internationale de Volleyball – official website
• FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2023 – official competition website
• Brackets

Notes and References

1. Web site: 11 November 2022 . Volleyball's Best Ready To Grace Venues Across The Globe As Arenas Confirmed For VNL 2023 . FIVB.
2. Web site: United States and Poland to host Volleyball Nations League Finals in 2023 . 6 December 2022 . Volleyball World.
3. Web site: Croatia and Cuba secure Volleyball Challenger Cup titles . Volleyball World . 12 November 2022 . 31 July 2022.
4. Web site: Poland claim historic VNL gold in front of their home fans . Volleyball World . 23 July 2023 . en . 23 July 2023.
5. Web site: Japan beat the world champions and make it to the VNL podium . Volleyball World . 23 July 2023 . en . 23 July 2023.
6. Web site: Zatorksi becomes the first libero to earn the VNL MVP award . Volleyball World . 23 July 2023 . en . 23 July 2023.
7. Web site: volleyballworld.com . VNL Qualification System . 30 May 2023 . volleyballworld.com . en.
8. Web site: VNL 2023 Competition Formula . Volleyball World . 12 November 2022.
9. Web site: 11 November 2022 . Host cities and pools . Volleyball World.
10. Web site: Men's Statistics – 2023 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League . volleyballworld . 27 June 2023.
11. Web site: Men's Finals Statistics – 2023 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League . volleyballworld . 27 June 2023.
12. Web site: Negotiation and diplomacy of Davorzani against the actions of the United States of America . 1 July 2023 . volleyball.ir . fa.
13. Web site: Iran is in Anaheim with 12 players and without a coach . 1 July 2023 . volleyball.ir . fa.
14. Web site: 1 July 2023 . Iran agreed with the points of the World Federation in the third week . July 1, 2023 . volleyball.ir . fa.

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