2026 European Volleyball Championship Draw: Who Will Face Whom in the Final Tournament?
On Saturday, 4 October, at 21:45 Kyiv time, the long-awaited draw for the 2026 European Volleyball Championship will take place at the Norman-Swabian Castle in Bari, Italy.
The women's tournament will take place from 21 August to 6 September 2026 in four cities: Istanbul (Türkiye),Brno (Czechia),Gothenburg (Sweden),and Baku (Azerbaijan).
The host nations – Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Czechia, and Sweden – will be joined by the eight highest-ranked national teams: Serbia, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, France, Bulgaria, UKRAINE, and Slovakia.
Several more teams secured their places through the qualification process: Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, Montenegro, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Croatia, and Romania.
Men's Tournament
The men's competition will begin on 10 September 2026 with a spectacular outdoor match at Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples. The tournament will be held in Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, and Romania. The semifinals and final are scheduled for 25–26 September at the modern Arena Santa Giulia in Milan, which will also host ice hockey events during the Milan–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games a few months earlier.
Other host cities for the men's tournament include Modena and Turin (Italy),Varna (Bulgaria),Tampere (Finland),and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). The reigning European champions are Poland, who won the title in Rome in 2023.
Men's European Championship participants:
Host nations: Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, and Romania
The eight highest-ranked teams from EuroVolley 2023: Poland, Slovenia, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, UKRAINE, Germany, and Portugal
Qualifiers: Denmark, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, Latvia, Türkiye, Israel, Sweden, and North Macedonia.
