15 European eye title at the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship

The 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship – the 21st edition of the flagship world volleyball competition – will throw off on 12 September in the Philippines, with 32 teams at the start, 15 of which are European sides.

The usual suspects – reigning European champions Poland, reigning world champions Italy and reigning Olympic champions France – will all be at the start, as well as the bronze medallists at the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Men, Slovenia, and 11 other European sides.

The competition will take place between 12 and 28 September in Pasay and Quezon City in the Philippines, with the 32 teams being divided into eight pools of four teams each for the preliminary round, with the top two teams in each pool progressing to the next phase of the competition.

The reigning European champions, Poland, have been sent to Pool C, where they face two other European teams – the Netherlands and Romania, as well as Asian side Qatar. While Romania are back in the competition for the first time since 1982, the Netherlands have finished seventh in their previous appearance, in 2022, and were eliminated by Italy in the quarter-finals of the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Men, after a hard-fought match, 3:2.

Reigning world champions, Italy, will be aiming to do the double after the women’s team marched on to a flawless gold medal at the 2025 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship last week.

Italy were drawn in Pool F, also against two European opponents – Ukraine and Belgium – and African side Algeria. Ukraine were also quarter-finalists at the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Men,finishing eighth in the final standings, and will make only their third appearance in the competition, while Belgium’s top performance at the World Championship was the eighth place in 1970.

France, which have traditionally not performed at the highest level at the World Championship, with a single medal – a bronze in 2002 – under their belt, will be also aiming to go as far as possible. They will be strong favourites in Pool C, where there is only one other European team – the winners of the 2025 CEV Men's European Volleyball Golden League – Finland, as well as Argentina and the Republic of Korea.

In Pool D, Portugal will have their work cut out against USA, Cuba and Colombia, while three European teams will fight for the two qualification places in Pool E, where Slovenia, Germany and Bulgaria will face Chile. Slovenia, one of the most consistent teams of the past years, are participating only for the third time, after making their debut in 2018 and finishing on the fourth place in 2022.

Türkiye will also face difficult opponents in Pool G in Japan, Canada and Libya, while Czechia and Serbia face a mammoth task in Pool H, where they face title contenders Brazil and the People’s Republic of China.

Six of the last nine editions of the FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship were won by European sides. Italy secured the title in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2022, while Poland were crowned champions in 2014 and 2018. Italy are the second most decorated team in history, with four titles, two gold medals behind the Soviet Union.

The preliminary round of the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship will take place between 12 and 18 September, while the Round of 16 is due to take place between 20 and 23 September.

The quarter-finals are scheduled for 24 and 25 September, the semi-finals for 27 September and the big final, as well as the bronze medal match on 28 September.