The recent FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship brought about substantial shifts in the global rankings, with Bulgaria, Portugal, and Tunisia emerging as the teams making the most remarkable ascents. This analysis details how participating nations navigated the World Ranking during and after the prestigious tournament.
Bulgaria`s impressive performance, reaching the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship for the first time in 55 years, resulted in the largest gain in the men’s FIVB Volleyball World Ranking. They, along with Tunisia and Portugal, advanced six positions, marking the most significant climbs among all participants.
Beginning the championship at world number 15, Bulgaria`s exceptional journey to the silver medals, securing six wins out of seven matches (including three against higher-ranked opponents), elevated them to the ninth spot globally. Their ranking score saw a significant increase of 58.40 points.
Portugal and Tunisia also made remarkable progress, each earning two victories in their respective pools to reach the eighth-finals. This strong showing propelled Portugal from 29th to 23rd, and Tunisia from 43rd to 37th in the World Ranking, both moving up six places.
Czechia, a surprise semi-finalist finishing fourth, improved its ranking by three positions, now sitting at 18th globally.
Other notable advancements include Turkiye, Belgium, and the Philippines, each gaining two spots to reach 14th, 15th, and 80th, respectively. The USA, Slovenia, Argentina, and Canada each moved up one position, securing 6th, 7th, 9th, and 11th places.
Meanwhile, the top four teams in the World Ranking—Poland, Italy (current world champions), Brazil, and France—successfully maintained their pre-championship standings.
Teams Experiencing Ranking Declines
Conversely, Algeria experienced the most significant drop, losing all three matches in straight sets and falling seven places from 88th to 95th. Colombia and Libya also each dropped four spots to 45th and 79th, respectively, after three defeats. Egypt, despite an initial upset against Iran, also saw a four-spot decline to 27th.
Germany, Iran, and Ukraine each slipped three places, while Japan, Cuba, Romania, China, and Chile fell by two positions. Serbia, Finland, the Netherlands, Qatar, and Korea each descended one spot in the rankings. Interestingly, some of these teams, like Serbia, Finland, and the Netherlands, actually gained ranking points but were still overtaken by others.
Detailed Point Changes in World Ranking
In terms of raw ranking points gained, Bulgaria was the clear leader with 58.40 points. Turkiye followed with 41.36, then Belgium (39.35), Czechia (36.61), Italy (17.00), the Netherlands (14.16), Tunisia (13.84), the Philippines (10.03), Finland (9.99), Portugal (9.71), Argentina (6.80), the United States (4.85), and Serbia (3.67).
Conversely, 19 participating nations experienced a net loss of ranking points. Japan had the most significant decrease with 36.31 points. Other major point losers included France (25.38), Romania (21.78), Egypt (20.38), Brazil (18.03), China (17.82), Cuba (17.55), Germany (16.94), Ukraine (16.01), Chile (14.24), Iran (13.89), Slovenia (12.37), Korea (9.78), Poland (9.18), Colombia (7.83), Algeria (4.95), Qatar (1.46), Libya (1.01), and Canada (0.88).
Oliver Wrenwick