ALAS Pilipinas Women have been guaranteed qualification to the 2029 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship as the tournament’s forthcoming hosts.
That would be the Philippines’ second-ever appearance at the women’s global conclave since 1974.
But here’s the thing. 2029 is still four years away from now.
With FIVB World Championship events now biennial from 2025 onwards, the next staging of the tournament will be joint-hosted by the United States and Canada in 2027.
A four-year stretch is a long period to build the best national team for the rest of the world to see on home soil, just like what Alas Men did in a historic run earlier this month.
For a country that has reached for the stars for so long in international volleyball, there’s no reason to settle for the four-year wait when an earlier window will soon open.
Here are the possible pathways for Alas Women to make it to the world stage as early as two years from now.
PATH 1: Continental championship
In a roughly year-long World Championship cycle, 29 spots will be up for grabs through two major pathways to qualify for the 32-team global conclave.
The first three spots are handed to host nations USA and Canada along with Italy as defending champions.
From the 29 remaining spots, 14 of those will go to the top performing teams in the 2026 continental championships.
In the case of Asia, the top three teams in the 2026 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship will automatically advance to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship.
For added context, the Philippines finished 13th in the 14-team field back in the last edition of the tournament in 2023. It was one of the last major competitions by the Philippine women’s national volleyball team in its pre-Alas Pilipinas era.
With two host nations instead of one, there is a possibility that the Asian allocation may be reduced to two bar any qualification rule changes from the FIVB Board of Administration.
PATH 2: World Ranking qualification
This second pathway will come into play once the continental championships are completed some time next year.
By then, 17 of the 32 World Championships have already been secured.
As per FIVB rules, the last 15 spots will be allocated to the 15 highest-ranked teams in the world that failed to qualify through their respective continental championships.
Almost every FIVB-sanctioned event between now and the end of the qualification windows will merit world ranking points intended to boost national teams’ chances of reaching the global conclave even as non-continental champions.
In the Philippines’ case, among competitions with world ranking points in the offing are the 2026 Asian Championship, 2026 AVC Women’s Nations Cup to be held in Ilocos Sur and the two legs of the 6th Southeast Asian (SEA) V.League.
A rule of thumb of sorts in this pathway is that a national team within the Top 30 of the world rankings by the end of all qualification windows are more than likely to qualify for the World Championship.
This was the case in the 2025 Women’s World Championship as 15 of the top 30-ranked teams qualified through continental championships. The other 15 earned their berths through the world ranking pathway.
The only two teams to reach the 2025 FIVB Worlds outside of the world’s top 30 are No. 33 Vietnam (qualified as 2023 Asian Championship fourth-placer) and No. 36 Egypt (qualified as 2023 African Championship runner-up).
As of the end of September, the Philippines is ranked 46th in the FIVB world rankings with 76.16 points.
The Nationals are exactly 53.99 world ranking points behind the current 30th-ranked nation Spain (130.15 points).
It might seem a mountain to climb, but with a younger and deeper pool of talent at head coach Jorge Souza de Brito’s disposal for the 2026 national team window, never say never, right?
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