CEV - Confédération Européenne de Volleyball

Competition Overview

The Continental Cup has been since its introduction back in 2010 a major breakthrough for the Olympic Games qualification system and an attractive alternative qualification pathway for athletes and National Federations around the globe.

The CEV has since the 1st edition promoted and supported the competition in the spirit of allowing all National Federations a common access point to their Olympic participation dreams.

For the 2018-2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup edition and in accordance with the IOC approved Tokyo 2020 Beach Volleyball Olympic qualification system, the CEV has announced basic parameters and timelines considering both the magnitude of the competition and the need for proper planning and preparation of all National Federations.

As per the previous editions, 1 quota place will be allocated to the winning NF/NOC per gender at the end of this process in June 2020.

The basic principles of the competition, as set in by the IOC approved document are:

   - Each Federation participates with 2 teams per gender
   - The Competition will be staged in 3 phases in total, including a Final that will be played in June
     2020, after the end of the Olympic Ranking qualification process, without athletes that have already
     earned a quota place for their NOC/NF

Based on the above and the respective FIVB Guidelines, CEV has confirmed the following competition timeline:

   - Registration of National Federation by 30th September 2018. Following the registration deadline the
     National Federations will be seeded according to their CEV Country Ranking as of 30th September
     2018, with the top eight National Federations qualifying directly to the 2nd phase.
   - Application for 1st phase events according to the CEV circulated Candidature Application by mid October 2018
   - Organisation of 1st phase tournaments in May/June 2019 in multiple pools
   - Application deadline for organisers of the 2nd phase will be set for October 2019
   - Organisation of 2nd phase tournaments in May 2020 in multiple pools
   - Application deadline for organisers of the Final will be set on 30th November 2018
   - Final phase will be played in June 2020 and will be conducted with a 16 NF bracket per gender

UPDATE as of 09 March 2021:
Following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games due to the coronavirus pandemic, the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup 2nd Phase and Final are rescheduled for May and June 2021 respectively.

Izmir (TUR), Madrid (Spain) and Baden (AUT) will be hosting the three events scheduled for the second phase of the 2018-2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, with competition due to take place between May 6-9, 2021.

The Final event will be held in The Hague (Scheveningen), The Netherlands from 23rd to 26th June 2021.

UPDATE as of 03 June 2021:
The CEV Board of Administration re-confirmed all hosts, which were due to deliver the the Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying events back in the spring of 2020 before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the presentation at the last FIVB Board of Administration in May, today we have received the final approval of IOC Executive Board Qualification Taskforce on the amendments to the Beach Volleyball Qualification Systems.

Please kindly note that this version has also be shared by the IOC to all NOCs through NOCnet as well.

The details of the adaptation are as follows:

1. Section C. Athlete Eligibility, point 2, with the updated text as follows:
To be eligible to represent an NOC that has been allocated a quota place through the Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final (or the Host Country Place), all athletes must have participated as an individual in a minimum of six (6) of the following events: the FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cups (each phase counts as one event); Recognized Competitions: Continental Tours, National Tours, Zonal Tours; recognized Multi-Sports Games and regional Games; FIVB Competitions as defined in the FIVB Handbook, scheduled from 1st June 2018 until 27th June 2021.

2. Consequently, the same eligibility criteria will be applied in the context of the late replacement policy that described also under Section C. Athlete Eligibility, with the updated text as follows:

The replacing athlete must have participated as an individual in a minimum of six (6) of the following events: the FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cups (each phase counts as one event); Recognized Competitions: Continental Tours, National Tours, Zonal Tours; recognized Multi-Sports Games and regional Games; FIVB Competitions as defined in the FIVB Handbook, scheduled from 1st June 2018 until 27th June 2021 and have been placed on the NOC’s Athlete Accreditation Long List by (23 April 2021) their respective NOC.

Except for the updates mentioned above, no further changes have been made.

The above amendments are based on the consideration that despite the efforts to ensure a safe return of the World Tour in 2021, the organization of National Tours and Continental Tours has been largely hindered by the pandemic. In particular, the number of relevant events held decreased drastically in the period from February 2020 to June 2021.