Hamburg joins Beach Majors family

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour returns to Germany for the first time in three years from June 7-12 for the double-gender smart Major Hamburg. The 2016 event will be the first German FIVB World Tour event held in Hamburg as all of the previous tournaments were held in Berlin.

The smart Major Hamburg concludes the Road to Rio that lasts until June 13, 2016 with FIVB World Tour events counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine 15 of 24 spots for each gender that will take part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The first men’s FIVB World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil while the first women’s FIVB World Tour event in Brazil was played in 1993 in Rio de Janeiro. The women’s FIVB World Tour held its first tournament in Spain in 1992.

While this is the first FIVB World Tour event to be held in Hamburg, the CEV has presented three men’s and three women’s events on the European Federation tour. The most recent one for each gender was 2008.

The 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar began with three Open events at the end of 2015. The remainder of the 2016 calendar will include multiple FIVB Open and multiple FIVB Grand Slam events along with more Swatch FIVB Major Series events, and the second Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The highlight of the calendar will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil featuring 24 teams in each gender.

Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is also the 13th largest German state. Its population is over 1.7 million people, and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighboring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than five million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe.

Hamburg is a transport hub and is an affluent city in Europe. It has become a media and industrial center, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm and Voss and Aurubis. It is also home to the radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers of several top magazines. Hamburg has been an important financial center for centuries, and is the seat of the world’s second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank.

The city is a notable tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors; it ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015.

The Speicherstadt was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2015.

The 2016 FIVB World Ranking system will again include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.

Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. While the FIVB World Championships had 48 teams, all other tournaments have 32 teams and begin with a qualification tournament in each gender to determine the final eight teams in the main draw fields.

Country quota playoffs are also held, as needed, to determine the final teams for qualification tournaments.

The 2014-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is back again this year as it completes its portion of the qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.