Mix of Volleyball powerhouses and up-and-coming teams to contest #EuroVolleyU20M Final Round in Serbia and Greece

Europe’s Volleyball stars in the making will be coming together later this summer in Serbia and Greece for the Final Round of this year’s #EuroVolleyU20M. The competition will feature 16 teams – with the top two from each pool progressing to the semis and medal matches that will be crowning the new U20 men’s European champions in the Serbian spa resort of Vrnjačka Banja. 

After completion of the second-round qualifiers contested last week across five countries, the Drawing of Lots to determine the composition of the two preliminary pools for the Final Round was held on Thursday morning at the home of European Volleyball in Luxembourg. 

Co-hosts Serbia will play Poland, reigning U19 World champions France, Türkiye, Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, and Austria in Pool I. The participation in the event is especially remarkable for Latvia and Austria – since they have reached the final stage of the U20 men’s continental championship for the first time since 2004 and 1984, respectively. They did achieve this feat in emphatic style by completing a clean sweep of their second-round matches in Daugavpils and Hartberg. 

Greece will co-host the event with the Pool II matches due to be contested in the city of Arta, where #EuroVolleyU20M represents a valuable opportunity not only to promote an area with a rich cultural heritage, but to upgrade the local sports facilities and promote Volleyball in a truly unprecedented way as well. Greece will play reigning U20 European champions Italy – albeit they won the title two years ago with a different generation of players – plus Czechia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Spain, Israel, and Scotland. Israel sensationally won their second-round qualifier last week in Montenegro to qualify for the final stage of #EuroVolleyU20M for the first time since they hosted the championship in 1996. For Scotland, on the other hand, as winners of the Small Countries Association (SCA) championship in this age group, this will be a historic premiere on the continental stage – in any age group!  

The detailed competition schedule will be published early next week, so teams and especially their coaching staff can start getting ready for the highlight of the year right away!