The World Championships 2022 wrapped up this morning crowning the Beach Vikings and Duda/Patricia as World Champions of Beach Volleyball. “Champions of the World”, surely must be the most prestigious title in any sport/discipline/field/occupation. Its on another level from Olympic Champion where the IOC have a strong principle of universality as part of their qualification criteria requiring as wide a range of participants from each of the 5 continents represented by the 5 Olympic rings. This principle along with the limitations of the scale of the games such as beds in the athletes village etc result in a select few taking part in each sport–country and continental quotas exist meaning you don’t necessarily have all of the best athletes in any one sport all there.
But that's ok right?; its the Olympics not the World Championships.
So why then does the Beach Volleyball World Championships follow the same exact principle of universality? What other sport does this for its World Championships? As an elite athlete surely you should expect that your ultimate challenge and the pinnacle of your sport is to earn your way to the world championships and once there be competing against all of the best in the world in order to win that crown and title of World Champion?
So in a nutshell what is wrong with the current World Championships of Beach Volleyball?
In a field of 48 teams per gender only 23 are guaranteed to come from the top of the current rankings.
Continental qualification was different for each continent with some criteria making little sense.
Qualification pathways were not published until a few months before the Championships and well after the qualifying periods started.
There was a country quota limit of 4 teams per country. This directly impacted athletes from Brazil, USA and Germany who all had more than 4 women's teams in the top 30 in the world.
Not only were ranking points on offer but they were double the value of the highest level world tour event. (unlike the Olympics which rightly offer zero points as it is effectively an exhibition event with teams “invited” to represent each continent.)
48 teams doesn't divide equally into a single elimination playoff bracket meaning “lucky losers” are brought in.
Teams were seeded in the playoff brackets by drawing of lots putting a large element of chance into teams finals results due to the possible match ups in the playoffs. With large ranking points on offer this can make a huge difference to where you end up.
We are now just 1 year away from the 2023 World Championships and still the qualifying pathways and continental criteria have not been published. It should be imperative that this information is published publicly before any qualifying period begins. (which i guarantee you has already begun)
7 Problems with 7 Solutions
Problem: Not all the best teams in the world were there.
Solution: Remove the country quota.
Problem: Entry ranking uses too small a window for a biannual event
Solution: Use World ranking for entry (last 365 days)
Problem: Wildcards were used politically by the FIVB
Solution: Wildcards should be only used by the Promoter in conjunction with the Tournament Organiser and be primarily to gain greatest global reach from that specific World Championships. (i.e. Kloth and Nuss of the USA were the greatest story in the sport 2 weeks before the World Championships and would have been perfect candidates and could have helped promote the sport hugely with global media as well as giving greater credibility to the World championship field.)
Problem: Pool play saw massive mismatches
Solution: Make the Tournament 32 teams with just 1 continental place per continent for each continental champion (if not already qualified) (alternatively give no Continental places)
Problem: “Lucky Losers” is an actual term used in the World Championships!
Solution: Make the Tournament a 32 team draw
Problem: Drawing of lots was used when there are clear set and point ratios available to use from pool play.
Solution: Use a pre-set bracket post pool play (3rd in A v 2nd in D etc)
Problem: Teams got double the ranking points of an elite 16 World Tour event.
Solution: Remove ranking points from the World Championships
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