Egypt's volleyball team, taking part for the first time in the World League, lost everything, writes Abeer Anwar Egypt, the first ever African representative in the volleyball World League, has failed to win a single match from its eight played so far in Cairo. In fact, the team has won only two sets, one each against South Korea and Cuba. In defence, Amr Makhlouf, an Egyptian Volleyball Federation board member and head of the competitions committee said, "Falling in Group D we had to face strong teams like Cuba, Bulgaria and Korea. In addition, three of the national team's key players, Hamdi El-Safi, Saleh Fathi and Ahmed Saleh, were absent due to injury." Makhlouf added that the players were also supposed to collect bonuses following a loss or victory but were told that because the federation had paid a lot to join the competition there was no money left for them. "As a result, the players were not eager to play. They were reluctant and they started to fight for their rights. Such an atmosphere does not help." Makhlouf also said the new Polish coach, Rice Greigoras , was not being given a chance and was being criticised by some federation members. "Thus he is unable to concentrate on the players." The International Volleyball Federation decided to give the World League a record $20 million and thus set an unprecedented level for a global team sport event. Two million of the $20 million total will fund a special bonus pool in order to reward the participating national federations. Equally unprecedented is the 16 countries (previously only 12 national teams participated) taking part in the event. The International Volleyball Federation selected from among 18 candidates Brazil, Cuba, Poland, Serbia & Montenegro (the four 2005 World League finalists in Belgrade), Russia and the United States, both coming back after several years of absence due to an internal reorganisation, France, Italy, Portugal, Finland and Bulgaria, the other European powers in the league, Japan, South Korea and China from Asia, Argentina from South America and Egypt. Citing the Volleyball Federation's web site, the participation of Egypt makes the World League the first international sport event to be played across all five continents. The tournament is seeing a total of 96 matches, with four pools of four teams, each team playing the other teams in the pool twice in home and away matches. The winners of each pool will go through to join the host team and a wild card in the final round. The intercontinental rounds are taking place over six weekends from 14 July to 20 August. Each team plays two matches against the same team on separate days over the same weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). With three rounds at home and three away, there are a total of 12 matches for each team and an overall total of 96 matches in the preliminary phase. Egypt will face Korea on 12 August and Bulgaria on the 18-20 August. The team rankings per pool are determined by the points total (two points for a victory, one point for a loss) after all matches have been played in the intercontinental round. The top-ranked team in each pool qualifies for the final round. The host team of the final round automatically qualifies for the final round, together with one wild card team designated by the FIVB. If the host team for the final round is ranked first in its pool, the second ranked team in this pool will qualify for the final round. In the event of a tie at the end of the intercontinental round in the number of points scored by two or more teams, the teams will be classified according to the total number of points scored during all sets divided by the total number of points lost. The final round is played over five days, in Moscow, Russia from 23-28 August. which are divided into pool play and eliminator matches. The organiser, the winner of each pool and a wild card chosen by the FIVB qualify for the final, a total of six teams. The history of the World League goes back to 1987, a new idea was conceived, to organise a professional event for men's volleyball which would become the show window of the sport. Today, after 10 editions, the World League is more successful than ever. A fascinating history, peppered with money and glory, the spirit of the ground-breaking FIVB-World competition, devised to pool each continent's best national teams in a single event, has never changed. Over the last decade, it has undoubtedly been the World League which has made the most significant contribution to the stunning spread of volleyball, a feat of quite amazing proportions. In 1990, set against its subsequent growth, the first World League appeared modest: only eight teams, 52 matches, 52 host cities, 270,000 spectators and $1 million in prize money. Few sports tournaments can boast of such a rich debut.
