FIVB Senior Continental Rankings

The FIVB Senior Continental Rankings is a ranking system for men's and women's national teams in volleyball. Divided to five continental confederations, the teams of the member nations of FIVB, volleyball's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIVB-recognised full international matches. The rankings are used in international competitions to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools. Specific procedures for seeding and pooling are established by the FIVB in each competition's formula, but the method usually employed is the serpentine system.

Calculation method

In 2019, FIVB collaborated with Hypercube Business Innovation of the Netherlands to design a new world ranking platform. The previous calculation method have a problem of circularity in the international volleyball calendar: only countries who participate in the major volleyball events can earn ranking points, whilst the number of ranking points of countries also determines seeding and access of teams for major events. This unfair principle does not contribute to the sporting and commercial quality of volleyball.

On 1 February 2020, the new ranking system will be implemented and will take into account all results from 1 January 2019. The system will be consistently updated to reflect the latest results and performances. The new World Ranking considers the match results between teams in the same continental confederations from all official competitions:

Tournament Category Organizer NoteOlympic Games finals IntercontinentalFIVB 45 only matches between teams in same confederationsIntercontinental Olympic Qualifying Intercontinental25 only matches between teams in same confederationsContinental Olympic Qualifying Asia Continental25 co-sanctioned with AVCAfrica co-sanctioned with CAVBEurope co-sanctioned with CEVS America co-sanctioned with CSVN America co-sanctioned with NORCECAWorld Championship finals IntercontinentalFIVB 45 only matches between teams in same confederationsWorld Championship Qualifying22.5 only matches between teams in same confederationsNations League IntercontinentalFIVB 40 only matches between teams in same confederationsChallenger Cup20 only matches between teams in same confederationsWorld Cup IntercontinentalFIVB 35 only matches between teams in same confederationsAfrican Championship finals ContinentalCAVB 35 African Zonal Championship North17.5 West A West B Central East South A South B Asian Championship finals ContinentalAVC 35 Asian Championship Qualifying17.5 Asian Challenge Cup ContinentalAVC 10 Asian Zonal Championship West ContinentalAVC 10 Central East ASEAN Oceania EuroVolley finals ContinentalCEV 35 EuroVolley Qualifying17.5 European League ContinentalCEV 10 NORCECA Championship finals ContinentalNORCECA 35 NORCECA Zonal Championship N Central17.5 CentralE CaribbeanCaribbeanNORCECA Champions Cup ContinentalNORCECA 10 Pan-American Volleyball Cup ContinentalNORCECA 10 co-sanctioned with CSVSouth American Championship ContinentalCSV 35

AVC Continental Rankings

Top-ranked men's national teams