15 European teams find out their fate at the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship draw event

The 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship, the 21st edition of the competition, will be the first one which will see 32 teams line up at the start, with the participating sides being announced in July, with the draw for the pool phase taking place in Parañaque, the Philippines, on 14 September.

Apart from the host country, the Philippines, and the reigning champions, Italy, 15 teams  were qualified directly, including the first three best placed teams at the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Men – champions Poland, bronze medallists Slovenia and fourth-placed France. Italy, the runners-up, were already qualified as the reigning world champions.

After the first 17 berths were completed, the next 15 went to the top 15 teams as per FIVB World Ranking who had not yet qualified, with 11 teams from Europe boosting the ranks, therefore improving the number of European sides taking part in the world flagship volleyball competition to 15, nearly half of the 32 participating teams.

The competition will take place between 12 and 28 September 2025, with the preliminary round, as well as the knock-out rounds scheduled in Manila.

The 32 teams have been divided into eight pools of four teams each, with the top two teams in each side progressing to the Round of 16, as the knock-out phase starts.

In a spectacular ceremony, held in Manila, the pools for the first phase of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines were drawn on Saturday, 14 September.

Reigning world champions, Italy, were drawn into Pool F, alongside Ukraine, Belgium and Algeria, in one of the three pools where three European teams will be facing off, alongside Pool E, where Slovenia, Germany and Bulgaria will face Chile, while in Pool B reigning European champions Poland face the Netherlands, Romania and Qatar.

Current Olympic champions, France, have been drawn in Pool C, alongside Argentina, Finland and the Republic of Korea.

Italy (four titles) and Poland (three titles) are the most decorated European sides in the history of the competition, with the Soviet Union winning the largest number of medals in history – 11 – six of which were gold.

2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship – pool phase

Pool A: Philippines, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia

Pool B: Poland, Netherlands, Qatar, Romania

Pool C: France, Argentina, Finland, Korea

Pool D: USA, Cuba, Portugal, Colombia

Pool E: Slovenia, Germany, Bulgaria, Chile

Pool F: Italy, Ukraine, Belgium, Algeria

Pool G: Japan, Canada, Türkiye, Libya

Pool H: Brazil, Serbia, Czechia, China