2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League
The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League was the second edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League, an annual international men's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams. The competition was held between May and July 2019 and the final round took place in the Credit Union 1 Arena, Chicago, United States. This was the first edition of the World League or the Nations League to have the final round hosted in North America. Following the results of the 2018 Nations League and 2018 Challenger Cup, South Korea were  replaced by debutants Portugal in this edition. Portugal were the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and will be replaced by 2019 Challenger Cup winners Slovenia in the 2020 edition. Russia successfully defended its title, defeating hosts, the United States, in the final. Qualification. Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Twelve of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Other four teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament. Portugal replaced South Korea after winning the 2018 Challenger Cup. Format. Preliminary round. The 16 teams compete in a round-robin  format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams at each week and compete five weeks long, for 120 matches. The top five teams after the preliminary round join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round. The relegation takes into consideration only the 4 challenger teams. The last ranked challenger team will be excluded from the 2020 Nations League. The winners of the 2019 Challenger Cup will qualify for the next edition as a challenger team. Final round. The six qualified teams play  in 2 pools of 3 teams in round-robin. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The pool winners play against the runners-up in this round. The semifinals winners advance to compete for the Nations League title. The losers face each other in the third place match. Pools composition. The overview of pools was released on October 23, 2018. Venues. The list of host cities and venues was announced on 26 March 2019. Squads. The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 25 players, which every week's  14-player roster must be selected from. Each country must declare its 14-player roster two days before the start of each week's round-robin competition. Preliminary round. Week 2. Pool 8.