Havana, December 14 (JIT) - The groups and venues of the 2024 Nations Volleyball League have been announced and Cuba matches in the three weeks with Italy, Argentina and Serbia.
The VNL is going to define -by ranking location- the remaining quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
According to the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), in the men's division, the teams of Cuba, Italy (world champion), Argentina (Olympic bronze medalist), Serbia, Iran, Japan, Germany and Brazil will meet in the first week, from May 21 to 26, in Rio de Janeiro.
In that initial week, in Antalya, Turkey, the teams of France (Olympic champion), Poland (world runner-up), the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Slovenia and Bulgaria will play alongside the hosts.
Of these teams, the qualifiers from this year's pre-Olympic tournaments have already qualified for Paris 2024: Germany, Brazil, the United States, Japan, Poland and Canada, in addition to France as host nation. All are among the top 12 in the world ranking, which is led by Poland.
Still without a ticket to Paris, in the ranking are Argentina (314.35), Slovenia (307.12), France (306.80), Serbia (253.22), Germany (249.10), Cuba (236.96) and Canada (222.17).
Several of Cuba's top volleyball players have just finished their seasons with their clubs. In the Club World Cup, the last competition, opposite Jesus Herrera was crowned again with Italy's Perugia.
Meanwhile, Michael Sanchez was the mainstay of the runner-up Minas of Brazil, and was second in the competition in points and in attack, Alain de Armas, of the Sunbirds of Japan, was leader in service and third in points, while the Sada Cruzeiro of Brazil did not advance to the semifinals and only played two matches, although Cuban Miguel Angel Lopez shone in both of them.
