Draw sets tone for spine-tingling Champions League season due to begin in late October

The Drawing of Lots for the elite CEV Champions League Volley 2027 was completed on Wednesday afternoon at the state-of-the-art Broadcasting Centre Europe (BCE) in Luxembourg City, thereby setting the tone for another season filled with Volleyball of the finest level that will get underway in late October with the early rounds. Titleholders VakifBank ISTANBUL and Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA will aim for yet another accolade after emerging victorious from the 2025/2026 season completed this past May. 

The women’s competition will start with Round 2 where four double headers with home and away matches involving eight teams will be contested in late October. The four winners will progress to Round 3 – from where two sides will eventually join the ‘cream of the crop’ of European Volleyball in Round 4. 

As always, Round 4 includes five pools with four teams each playing a double round robin with three matches at home and another three away. Interestingly, two of the teams that reached the Final Four earlier this year feature in the same pool – silver medal winners Eczacibasi Peron ISTANBUL and Italy’s Savino Del Bene SCANDICCI. VakifBank will play newcomers UNI OPOLE of Poland, France’s national champions Volley MULHOUSE Alsace and one of the two teams progressing from the early rounds. You can expect close matches in Pool C as well where 2012 winners Fenerbahçe Medicana ISTANBUL will lock horns with 2024 silver medallists Numia Vero Volley MILANO. Another of the most dominant forces in recent years, Italy’s A. Carraro Prosecco DOC CONEGLIANO, three-time winners of the competition, will play two teams they had already taken on last year – KS Developres RZESZÓW and DRESDNER SC, plus domestic rivals and wildcard recipients Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA. Pool E looks pretty wide-open on paper with the reigning Polish and German national champions, PGE Budowlani ŁÓDŹ and VfB SUHL Thüringen joined there by Romania’s C.S.O. VOLUNTARI 2005 and 2026 CEV Cup winners and wildcard recipients, Galatasaray Daikin ISTANBUL. 

The five pool winners will advance directly to the quarterfinals whereas those finishing second and the third-ranked team with the best result across all pools will contest a Playoff round. 

The men’s competition will start with a Round 1 involving seven teams – including one enjoying a bye into Round 2, where another four teams are already seeded as per the latest relevant European Ranking List. These are TSV Raiffeisen HARTBERG (Austria), Levski SOFIA (Bulgaria), Sporting CP LISBOA (Portugal) and ACH Volley LJUBLJANA (Slovenia). As with the women, two teams will eventually progress from the early rounds to the group stage. 

The most competitive groups are Pool B and D. Titleholders and two-time defending champions Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA have been drawn together with 2026 bronze medal winners Ziraat Bankkart ANKARA and French national champions MONTPELLIER HSC VB. In Pool D, two-time #CLVolleyM winners Lube J. P. Myné CIVITANOVA are due to play last year’s sensation PGE Projekt WARSZAWA, who reached the Final Four after a rocky start, Belgium’s Greenyard MAASEIK and their domestic rivals TRENTINO Itas, who received a wildcard to join the competition after a 2025/2026 campaign marred by injuries. This edition features some high-level returnees such as Panathinaikos ATHENS and ambitious newcomers like Italy’s Rana VERONA. 

The rules in place for the women’s competition in defining who advances to the knockout stage apply to the men’s division as well. The season will reach its climax with the Final Four tournaments scheduled for May 1-2 and 15-16 for women and men, respectively. 

The Drawing of Lots featured two high-profile guests and real Volleyball superstars in Alessandro Michieletto and Simge Aköz, who helped raise the quality of the event even further.  

You can watch the full DOL here: