This is the first edition with under-19 national teams after FIVB decided, in March 2022, to move the age category of the girls' championship from U18 to U19 in order to align it with the Boys' U19 World Championship. Athletes should be born on or after 1 January 2005.[2][3] At same time, FIVB disqualified Belarus and Russia who would been defending champion from future official events due to Russo-Ukrainian War.
Hosts selection
On 2 June 2022, FIVB opened the bidding process for member associations whose countries were interested in hosting one of the four Age Group World Championships in 2023 (i.e., Boys' and Girls' U19 World Championships and Men's and Women's U21 World Championships).[4] The expression of interest of the member associations had to be submitted to FIVB by 29 July 2022, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2).[5]
FIVB announced the hosts for its four Age Group World Championship on 24 January 2023,[1] with the joint bid of Croatia and Hungary being selected to host the 2023 Girls' U19 World Championship.[6][7] This will be the first time that the FIVB Girls' U19 World Championship is co-hosted by two countries and the second time that Croatia hosts the tournament having previously done in 2001. For its part, Hungary will host a FIVB tournament of any category for the first time.
Qualification
Originally, a total of 20 national teams were going to qualify for the final tournament.[5] However, in January 2023, FIVB confirmed an increase in participating teams from 20 to 24 in order to "facilitate the co-hosting".[1]
In addition to Croatia and Hungary which qualified automatically as the hosts, 19 other teams qualified through five separate continental competitions which had to be completed by 31 December 2022 at the latest. The remaining 3 teams entered to the competition by the Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking (excluding teams from the CEV) among the teams not yet qualified.[8][9][10]
The draw for the pools composition was held on 31 March 2023 at the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.[13] The 24 teams were split into four pools of six. The hosts Croatia and Hungary and the top six teams of the Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking in force at that time (as of 24 October 2022)[update] were seeded in the first two positions of each pool following the serpentine system. FIVB reserved the right to seed the host teams as heads of pools A and B regardless of their position in the World Ranking. The remaining 16 teams were divided into four pots of four, according to their position in the same Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking, in order to be drawn to complete the following four positions in each pool.[9]
Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking of each team as of 24 October 2022[update] are shown in brackets, except the hosts Hungary and Croatia who ranked 35th and 36th, respectively.[14]
