Sweden poised to co-host CEV EuroVolley 2026 Women!

Sweden returns to play host to a major continental Volleyball competition after more than three decades! The Scandinavian country and more specifically the city of Göteborg will welcome six of the teams contesting the pool stage of the CEV EuroVolley 2026 Women in an endeavour that will certainly help raise the profile of the sport to unprecedented heights! The EuroVolley matches will be taking place at the iconic, state-of-the-art Scandinavium in Göteborg, Sweden’s second largest city. The news was broken to members of the public earlier today by the Swedish public broadcaster, SVT, during their morning show ‘Morgonstudion’ which is watched daily by hundreds of thousands of Swedes.  

The last and only time Europe’s premier competition for national teams was held in Sweden dates to 1989 – with the men’s tournament organised in Stockholm and Örebro – when Italy crowned themselves European champions for the first time in history after edging the home heroes of Sweden in Stockholm’s Globe Arena.

The success achieved by Team Sweden and especially by their star player Isabelle Haak – awarded as CEV Female Player of the Year in 2022 – have certainly helped revitalise the sport in the Scandinavian country and draw much attention from media and fans alike. Haak, who currently plays for A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO in the Italian national league, was highly instrumental to the historic result that Team Sweden achieved in 2021 – when they reached the quarterfinals and finished the tournament in 8th place in their first EuroVolley appearance since 1983.

“We have been witnessing the enormous progress made by the Swedish Volleyball Federation in the past few years and we have been truly impressed by all their efforts to constantly raise the bar and achieve higher levels of performance, on as well as off the court. Therefore, we are delighted and grateful that our friends and colleagues from Sweden have committed to organise the marquee event for women’s national teams in 2026, thus bringing a competition of this calibre to Sweden for the first time since the 1989 men’s European Championship – an event that has gone down in Volleyball history,” says CEV President Aleksandar Boričić. 

Haak has become a household name in Sweden and is already an inspiration for many young girls wishing to follow in her footsteps. This past fall, Sweden claimed the NEVZA U19 Championships to qualify for the #EuroVolleyU20W Final Round later this summer and many of these youngsters have now the additional incentive of a EuroVolley on home soil in a little more than two years. 

“It feels incredibly exciting to get the oppurtunity to organise a European Championship in Sweden and to keep building on the positive development that we have been experiencing in Swedish Volleyball. After qualifying for two straight EuroVolley playoffs abroad, we are stoked to see what our women’s national team can achieve on home soil, backed up by massive support from their fans. I believe that we will get to experience a great party in Göteborg in 2026,” adds Simon Dahl, Secretary General of the Swedish Volleyball Federation.

“We welcome the European Championship in Volleyball, and the successful Swedish national team to Göteborg. Now we look forward to exciting games, a great crowd atmosphere and to contributing to the team’s continued success in the way we can. We are especially happy that it is a women’s championship since our aim is to become a world leader in women’s sports events,” says Magnus Hallberg, Vice-President and Head of Events at Göteborg & Co.

“It is fantastic news to have another championship at Scandinavium! The arena has hosted over 40 European and World Championships over the years. This will be the first time we adapt the arena to a Volleyball Championship, which we are very excited about and very much looking forward to,” concludes Henrik Jutbring, Event Manager at Got Event.