The world’s best teams meet at the FIVB World Tour Finals starting tomorrow in Sardinia to claim their share of $800,000 in prizes. The small format tournament features ten men’s and ten women’s teams and wraps up the 2021 season.
Big prize ends a strange season
Since Olympic qualifying concluded back in June the FIVB schedule has consisted of only one and two star tournaments. Domestic and continental competitions continued for many players, but this will be the first time we’ve seen headliners from across the world in the same tournament since Tokyo. The prize money would make this a huge event any year, but in a season with few major tournaments, this one is gigantic. The winning teams will take home $150,000. Even the teams that finish last will earn $7,500. For comparison, fifth place finishers at a four-star tournament only make $6,000 and the winners of a one-star get $1,000.
The World Tour Finals returns to its traditional format of inviting the top 8 teams of the season, plus the two wild cards. In 2019, the finals were really a five-star and opened to over 50 teams per gender. In 2020, there was no tour and no finals. This time the teams qualified based on their top 8 results since the last finals in 2019. That means we get to see almost all of the best teams.
Teams are split into five team pools that play a complete round robin format. This means every team has four matches in pool play. The pool winners advance to the semifinals and the second and third place teams of each pool face off in a playin match.
Men’s Pools
| Pool A | Pool B | ||
| Paolo Nicolai & Daniele Lupo | Italy | Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan | Qatar |
| Taylor Crabb & Jake Gibb | USA | Anders Mol & Christain Sorum | Norway |
| Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner | Czech Republic | Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen | The Netherlands |
| Christiaan Varenhorst & Steven van de Velde | The Netherlands | Konstantin Semenov & Ilya Leshukov | Russia |
| Martins Plavins & Edgars Tocs | Latvia | Adrian Carambula & Enrico Rossi | Italy |
In Pool A Nicolai & Lupo look to dominate their home sand, but Jake Gibb’s final international tournament and the last time that Edgars Tocs and Martins Plavins will partner together will be the story to watch. Perusic & Schwiener started 2021 with Gold in Doha and would love to finish with a big prize after the disappointing impact of the positive COVID result in Tokyo. Taylor Crabb will also play internationally for the first time since missing Tokyo due to the virus. Varenhorst & van de Velde put on a huge push in the last Olympic qualification tournaments but just missed out.
Pool B features the best teams of the year, Mol & Sorum and Cherif & Ahmed. They meet up on Friday, the last day of pool play in what we hope will be a continuation of their epic 2021 clashes. Konstantin Semenov & Ilya Leshukov shocked the Norwegians in Tokyo pool play and hope to do it again in Italy. Sochi gold medalists Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen and the most entertaining team on the tour, Adrian Carambula & Enrico Rossi round out the pool.
Women’s Pools
| Pool A | Pool B | ||
| Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi | Italy | Agatha Bednarczuk & Duda | Brazil |
| Nadezda Makroguzova & Svetlana Kholomina | Russia | Sarah Sponcil & Kelly Claes | USA |
| Nina Betschart & Tanja Hüberli | Switzerland | Sarah Pavan & Melissa Humana-Paredes | Canada |
| Karla Borger & Julia Sude | Germany | Sanne Keizer & Madelein Meppelink | The Netherlands |
| April Ross & Alexandra Klineman | USA | Anouk Vergé-Dépré & Joana Heidrich | Switzerland |
April Ross & Alix Klineman look to continue their dominant year in pool A. After winning gold in Tokyo they were unbeaten on the AVP tour this year. They meet hosts, Olympian Marta Menegatti & 18 year-old newcomer Valentina Gottardi. The other three teams all played in the Olympics as well: Nadezda Makroguzova & Svetlana Kholomina, Nina Betschart & Tanja Hüberli and Karla Borger & Julia Sude. The Swiss ladies won the European championships following the Tokyo games.
Pool B has Agatha and Duda who were rumored to be parting ways after this season, but at least for now continue to play together on the Brazilian circuit. Tokyo bronze medalists Anouk Vergé-Dépré & Joana Heidrich and 2019 World Champions Sarah Pavan & Melissa Humana-Paredes are in this very balanced pool along with Sarah Sponcil & Kelly Claes and Sanne Keizer & Madelein Meppelink.
Unfortunately, not all of the top teams will be playing in Italy with both Tokyo silver medalists, Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artach del Solar and Viacheslav Krasilnikov & Oleg Stoyanovskiy missing out. There won’t be any Brazilian men taking part either as their top two teams from recent years have already parted ways. The Polish men are absent as well.
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Who will come to play
It is hard to predict which teams will be playing at the highest level this week. Typically the World Tour Finals come after a very busy season of four and five star tournaments and we know exactly who has the hot hand. In 2021, every team has finished the summer in different corners of the world, with different levels of intensity in training and competition. With three teams advancing from each pool and a complete five-team round robin in the first three days, there will be plenty of time to shake the cob webs off.
How to watch
The FIVB will stream all of the matches from Italy on their YouTube channel. They have done a great job of making every match available both live and through an archive all season long.