FIVB Continental Cup - Europe ready for the zonal phase

The drawing of lots for the zonal phase of the inaugural CEV Continental Cup was held in Bucharest on Saturday as part of the European Beach Volleyball Commission's (EBVC) meeting in the Romanian capital.

All first-ranked countries from the zonal phase will advance directly to the Continental Cup final, scheduled for 2012, while all second, third, fourth and fifth-ranked nations will move on to the Continental Cup semifinal, which is also set to take place next year.

The inaugural Beach Volleyball Continental Cup was added to the international calendar by the FIVB in cooperation with the five continental confederations in order to provide all countries with an additional chance to qualify teams for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The five winners of the Continental Cup to be played in each confederation (or the next best in the event's ranking if a country has already claimed two Olympic spots through the FIVB world rankings) will qualify directly for London 2012.

In addition, at the end of each continental stage, the next two best-ranked countries among those that did not yet get the maximum of two slots per gender in the draw for the Olympics will advance to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Olympic qualification tournament where the last two berths for London will be allotted.

Pool A in Kazan (Russia), June 3-5

Women: RUS, NED, FRA, ITA, CYP, SWE

Men: RUS, SUI, FRA, BUL, GBR, LAT

Pool B in Tenerife (Spain), September 16-18

Women: ESP, GER, LAT, CZE, SVK, NOR

Men: ESP, NOR, CZE, AUT, SRB, SVK

Pool C in Copenhagen (Denmark), September 9-11

Women: AUT, GRE, SLO, EST, DEN, BUL

Men: NED, TUR, DEN, ITA, POR, ROU

Pool D in Illichivsk (Ukraine), June 24-26

Women: GBR, POL, SUI, FIN, UKR, SRB

Men: EST, POL, GER, GRE, UKR, SWE