VNL 2023

Brazil overtake Italy and France in men’s World Ranking

Poland stay on top, Bulgaria make highest jump

Published 04:14, 12 Jun 2023

USA (USA) vs. Brazil (BRA) men - Pool 1 - Preliminary Phase #4935226

Brazil moved up to number two in the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Ranking after the first competition week in the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2023, overtaking previous number two Italy and number three France on the way up, while despite losing points, Poland stayed on as the number one men’s national team in the world.

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Interestingly, Brazil also lost points during the week, but not as many as the others. The South Americans gained 8.70 points combined for their wins over Germany, Argentina and United States, but dropped 12.06 for their loss to Cuba, which meant a new total of 357.31.

World Ranking leaders Poland also went through VNL week one with a 3-1 win-loss record, but also with a negative net of 10.67 points to a new total of 378.75 points, actually widening the gap on the top.

Meanwhile, Italy’s wins over Cuba and Germany did little to make up for the huge loss of points caused by the defeats at the hands of Argentina and USA and the reigning world champions went down 24.81 points from second to fourth on a new total of 344.56.

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Losing three of their four games last week in Nagoya, reigning Olympic champions France registered a net loss of 29.58 points and descended from third to sixth place on a new total of 338.92, the largest weekly fall among all VNL participants, both in terms of positions and points.

United States also overtook France in the World Ranking and currently stand fifth on 343.62 points after winning three out of four games last week in Ottawa.

Bulgaria, on the other hand, registered the highest weekly upward jump of three positions, despite losing three of their four matches in Nagoya. Their sole victory over Slovenia brought in 16.26 points and they netted 7.48 of them to climb from 23^rd to 20^th on 159.90 points.

Among the other VNL teams, Serbia, the Netherlands and Germany each moved up by a spot to 10^th, 12^th and 16^th, respectively. Japan, Argentina and Slovenia all made solid point gains, but kept their positions in the chart as they were before the start of the VNL, lined up from seventh to ninth in that order, while Iran, Cuba, Canada and China each shifted one position down to 11^th, 13^th, 17^th and 26^th, respectively.