Lausanne, Switzerland, April 16, 2013 – The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has announced that Porto, Portugal will host the 12th edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships from July 11 to 14.
Porto replaces Larnaka, Cyprus who withdrew following the financial problems in the country.
The FIVB requested at the recent FIVB Board of Administration for expressions of interest from other countries to replace Cyprus following which Portugal became the standout option.
Porto joins a list of experienced host cities for the FIVB Beach Volleyball Age Group World Championships this year with Umag, Croatia staging the 13th edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships from June 20 to 23 and Myslowice, Poland welcoming the inaugural edition of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U23 World Championships from June 6 to 9.
Each event will consist of a main draw of 32 teams (eight pools of four teams with the top two teams advancing to the single elimination final phase), comprising six teams per gender per FIVB Confederation (with a maximum of one team per gender per country) and two teams per gender for the host country.
The Confederations will select their best six ranked teams either via the last U19/21/23 Continental Championships or U19/21/23 Continental Tour in 2013 or 2012 or FIVB selection criteria*.
In the event a Confederation is unable to use their quota of six teams per gender, the FIVB will fill the vacancies either via a qualification tournament (one day, single elimination, minimum of eight teams and a maximum of 16) or FIVB selection criteria*.
Portugal has a rich history of hosting FIVB beach volleyball events having staged 13 men’s and nine women’s FIVB World Tour stops in Espinho while also hosting the 2010 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Porto. Portugal's second largest city and the capital of the Norte region is located in the estuary of the Douro River in the northern part of the European country. Porto has a population of over 1.7m in the greater metropolitan area.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships were first held in 2002 while the FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships started in 2001.