CEV EuroVolley 2026 full competition schedule now released!
News
A few weeks after the Drawing of Lots held at the iconic Norman-Swabian Castle in Bari, and less than 48 hours before tickets go on sale on Friday (click here for the men's ticketing page and here for the equivalent section of the women's event site), the full schedule for the pool phase of the highly anticipated CEV EuroVolley 2026 has been confirmed and released. The Volleyball party of the year will involve 24 teams per gender and take place across as many as eight countries.
The event will account for almost a month and a half filled with elite Volleyball and entertainment of the finest level – with action getting underway on August 21 across the four venues of the women’s tournament – Istanbul, Brno, Baku, and Gothenburg.
The pool stage of the competition features some very intriguing fixtures, such as the final matchup in Pool A where hosts Türkiye will be playing an ever-improving Polish national team, which made it among the top 8 at the last World Championship and secured a podium finish in the Volleyball Nations League for the last three years in a row. In Pool B in Czechia’s second-largest city, Brno, local and international fans can look forward to August 23 when the home side will be playing EuroVolley 2023 silver medal winners Serbia. As for Pool C in Baku, matches to look forward to include the ‘derby’ between the Netherlands and Belgium as well as the final matchup in the group when hosts Azerbaijan will be playing the Oranjes in a repeat of the dramatic 2017 semi-final played at the very same venue, the National Gymnastics Arena. Looking at the schedule in Pool D, matches to mark in your agenda include reigning World champions Italy playing hometown heroes Sweden on August 23 as well as the matchup between Italy and France on the next-to-last day of pool play, especially since Les Bleues recently reached the quarterfinals of the FIVB World Championship in Thailand.
Pool A in Italy promises a series of spine-tingling matches, starting with the must-watch open-air opening game at Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples featuring the hosts and Sweden. The newly-crowned world champions will have at least two more highly anticipated matches in their group when they take on Czechia and Slovenia on September 15 and 17, respectively. As for Pool C at the state-of-the-art Nokia Arena in Tampere, fans can already look forward to mouth-watering matchups such as Serbia vs the Netherlands, Serbia vs Belgium (both teams finished among the top 10 at the last World Championship) and the ‘derby’ featuring Finland and their neighbours from Estonia.
After completion of the pool phase, the competition will continue with the 8th Finals and quarterfinals, followed by semis and medal matches. The new Queens and Kings of European Volleyball will be crowned in Istanbul and Milan, respectively, on September 6 and 26. With the European elite of the sport coming together in the late summer of 2026, make sure you buy your tickets well ahead of time to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience and root for your favourite team!
For further information, visit the official event website https://eurovolley.cev.eu/2026