According to FIVB Senior Mens World Ranking as per August 22th, 2016, Irans volleyball has landed in the seventh position by collecting 50 points at Rio 2016 Olympic Games, 32 points at 2016 World League, 25 at 2015 World Cup as well as 56 points at 2014 World Championship yielding a total of 163 points.
The new ranking for Irans volleyball outfit gains significance since, excluding futsal which shares the same federation with soccer in majority of countries, Iran had never enjoyed a better ranking in any team sports so far.
Early in its 10-year development plan, volleyball of Iran had no better position than 26th in global rankings lagging behind countries like South Africa, Greece, Cameroon, Venezuela as well as the four Asian countries of Australia, Japan, Korea and China.
Nevertheless, numerous notable achievement over the past ten years, including Asian championship, entry to World League, landing sixth in World Championship as well as receiving tickets to Olympic Games, could take Iran all the way from the earlier 26th position to the eighth place by the end of the year 2008.
With conclusion of Rio Olympics, where Iran advanced to quarterfinals and ended in the fifth place, Persian volleyball players have bagged 50 more points and jumped one more spot in FIVB Word Ranking list enjoying a better status than Canada, France, Serbia or Germany.
In addition to giving credibility to Iran in international arenas, FIVB World Ranking is also influential in draws and grouping of competitions like the World League and World Championship.
Brazil, Poland, America, Italy, Russia and Argentina are ranked first to sixth in the standings while Canada, France, Serbia, Germany, Egypt, Cuba, Japan, Australia, Bulgaria, Finland, Mexico, Belgium and China follow Iran by occupying the eighth to twentieth places in the latest international ranking of FIVB.
By Mehr News Agency
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