What are the conditions for Vietnamese volleyball to participate in the 2027 World Championship?

Despite the unsatisfactory results, Vietnamese women's volleyball fans still yearn to cheer for their team to compete in the world championship in the next times.

The Vietnamese women's volleyball team received a lot of attention in their first participation in the tournament - Photo: FIVB

Why did Vietnamese women's volleyball team win tickets to the tournament this year?

In this year's tournament, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) granted Asia 3 places to participate, similar to every other continent.

There are a total of 15 places available for the top teams from the five continents (South America, North and Central America, Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia), plus two places for the defending champions and the host.

The remaining 15 spots are reserved for the highest-ranked teams in the FIVB rankings - excluding those who have qualified via the Continental Championships route, which equates to around the world's top 30.

At this point, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team has not yet entered the world's top 30. But a miracle occurred at the 2023 Asian Championship, when the Vietnamese girls defeated Korea and thereby won a ticket to the semi-finals of the tournament.

Although only ranked 4th overall in the tournament, Vietnam still received a ticket through the top 3 in Asia, because Thailand (the champion team) won the ticket from the host position.

Is there a difference for the next one?

The 2025 World Championship is also the first tournament to mark a change for the FIVB, when it organizes the World Championship every 2 years, instead of every 4 years as before. The tournament size will also increase to 32 teams.

Therefore, the next World Championship will take place in 2027. According to the current FIVB regulations, the next tournament will still be held with the same format and qualifying round as this year's tournament.

As the host country for the 2027 World Cup has yet to be announced, the slots for the top continental groups are currently three per continent.

Vietnamese volleyball had memorable moments at the 2025 world championship - Photo: FIVB

That is, to win a ticket to the 2027 world championship, the first possible path for Vietnamese women's volleyball is to win third place at the 2026 Asian Championship.

This is an extremely difficult task, because Japan, China and Thailand have so far proven their solid position as the "three big sisters" of Asian volleyball. To enter the top 3, Vietnam almost certainly has to defeat one of these three teams.

The second path is... to host the tournament, but so far this is just a pipe dream. Or if FIVB chooses China or Japan as hosts, Vietnam will only need to make it into the top 4 in Asia, similar to this year's tournament.

The final path is to be in the top FIVB ranking group - minus the teams that have already qualified via the top continental route.

Assuming the top 15 teams from the five continents, the reigning world champions and the host team (17 teams in total) are all ranked high in the FIVB rankings, the remaining 15 spots will be reserved for teams in the top 32 in the world.

The task will be more difficult if the top teams in the continent do not have high rankings.

For example, in this year's tournament, Vietnam was only ranked 33rd at the time of the qualifying round, and Egypt was only ranked 36th. Therefore, the last team to win a ticket to the tournament was Greece - ranked 30th in the world at that time (end of August 2024).

If they cannot enter the top 3 at the 2026 Asian Championship and cannot host the tournament, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team needs a position in the FIVB's world top 30. The time to finalize the ranking will be announced specifically by FIVB, expected around the end of 2025.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dieu-kien-gi-de-bong-chuyen-viet-nam-du-giai-vo-dich-the-gioi-2027-2025082722022306.htm