Lausanne, Switzerland, March 27, 2015 – The Drawing of Lots for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015 will take place in three days’ time at the Mauritshuis art museum, with teams set to learn their fate less than 90 days before the start of the competition.
The occasion will also see the unveiling of the new FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships trophy, with the first recipients set to be crowned on July 5.
A total of 96 teams – 48 for each gender – will compete at the World Championships from June 26 to July 5, with The Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam set to welcome the world’s best women’s and men’s duos.
Teams will be seeded by the sum of their athlete seeding points on the day before the Drawing of Lots (March 29, 2015 – after 12:00 Swiss time). They will also learn which of the four host cities they will play their opening matches in, with pool play and the quarterfinals spread across the Netherlands.
The event will be carried out in the presence of representatives from the FIVB, Nevobo, sponsors, city officials, members of Beach Team Netherlands, Tournament ambassadors and members of the media.
The top 12 seeded teams will be placed in the 12 pools in accordance to their respective seeding points.As the first host country team, is within the first 12 entry positions, they will be granted seeding No 1.
The second and third host country team entered through the national federation ranking will be placed as per their natural seeding.
The remaining host country teams will be placed one team per the three pools hosted in each of the four cities.
All wild cards will be placed by their natural seeding with the exception of the second wild card for the men’s host country, which will be drawn into the Pools playing in The Hague (fixed position in Pool I). The other wild cards from the host country cannot be placed in the same group as another host country team.
The FIVB and the organisers will unveil the full schedule of all Pool phase matches played from June 26 to 30 in the days following the Drawing of Lots.
The Drawing of Lots ceremony will take place at the same venue as Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, the artist’s most famous painting.