Volleyball Nations League 2024: Full schedule and how to watch live
The 16 top women’s and men’s national volleyball teams will get to do some fine-tuning ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the Volleyball Nations League 2024, which will run from 14 May to 30 June.
The Volleyball Nations League 2024 will see some of the world’s best volleyball nations take each other on in 104 matches in each gender. The global showpiece will stop in nine different cities – Antalya, Rio de Janeiro, Macau, Arlington, Hong Kong, Fukuoka, Ottawa, Ljubjana, and Manila, before heading to Bangkok and Lodz for the final rounds.
In the women’s competition, reigning champions Türkiye will start their title defence on home soil in Antalya against Japan on 15 May. Bulgaria and the Netherlands will play the 2024 curtain-raiser the day before. On the other side of the world, Brazil will host Olympic champions the United States and reigning world champions Serbia.
Olympic champions France will be looking to get their 2024 campaign off to a winning start when they take on Bulgaria in the opener of the men’s competition in Antalya on 21 May. Defending VNL champions Poland will be in action the next day against the United States.
Four Paris 2024 qualifying quota spots in each gender will be decided after the tournaments' respective Preliminary Phases, which are the last qualifying event counting towards the FIVB World Rankings for Paris 2024.
Seven teams have already secured a quota spot in each event, and the last five will be determined through the world rankings, although one spot is guaranteed for Africa, which has no representatives in the VNL.
VNL 2024 format
The 16 teams have been split into six pools of eight teams, with each team appearing in three pools in the preliminary stage, which is held over three weeks in three different locations.
Each team will play four times in each pool: once against a team ranked first to fourth, once against a team ranked fifth to eighth, once against a team ranked ninth to 12th, and once against a team ranked 13th to 16th. This means each team will play a total of 12 matches.
At the end of the three weeks, the Final Stage hosts Thailand and Poland plus the top seven ranked teams (not including Thailand or Poland) will qualify for the Final Stage, which will be held as a direct knockout elimination tournament over four days.
The bottom-ranked non-core team is relegated for next year.
Women's schedule for the VNL 2024 season
Men's schedule for the VNL 2024 season
How to watch the 2024 Volleyball Nations League
The Volleyball Nations League tournaments will be broadcast live on the FIVB's partners in various countries.
Both men's and women's events will also be live on Volleyball World TV, the FIVB's own broadcast platform, with a paid subscription.