South Korean women's volleyball, whose world ranking has fallen sharply, will continue to play in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) hosted by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) in 2025.

FIVB introduced the VNL process from 2025 to 2027 on its website on the 14th, which aims to increase the number of VNL participating countries held annually from the current 16 to 18.

VNL, which was launched in 2018, runs the competition until this year as a competition between 16 men and women, combining 12 key countries and 4 challenging countries.

South Korea's women's volleyball, which was ranked 10th in the FIVB world rankings and fell to 40th as of the 15th due to slow generational change and poor international competitiveness, can participate in the tournament regardless of ranking until this year's VNL, thanks to its status as a key country at the time of its launch.

From 2025, it was not possible to guarantee participation in VNL, but as FIVB confirmed its participation method in 2025, Korea will be able to automatically participate for another year.

The FIVB defined the men's and women's participating countries in 2025 as the highest ranked team in the world among the 16 countries participating in the 2024 VNL, the winners of the 2024 Ball Ball Challenger Cup, and the teams that did not qualify.

The 18th place, the last place based on the 2025 VNL result, will be eliminated from the next year's tournament, and the team with the highest world ranking will fill the spot. The status as a key country that granted automatic participation will disappear from 2025.

Therefore, Korea can continue to participate in the VNL if it avoids the bottom. However, the Korean women's volleyball team has lost all 12 games without getting any points for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023, so it is urgent to improve its competitiveness.

With the expansion of VNL participating countries, it has also emerged as a concern whether South Korean men's volleyball, which has not yet been on the stage, will get a chance to play.

Until this year, he had to win the Challenger Cup, the lower league of the VNL, to be promoted and reach the VNL, but from next year, one more world ranking quarter was guaranteed, giving Korean men's volleyball a chance to develop its dream.

The world ranking of Korean men's volleyball is 28th.  토토사이트

The Korean women's volleyball team will travel to Brazil, the United States, and Japan from May to June this year to play away matches in the VNL.