2026 Men's European Volleyball Championship

The 2026 Men's European Volleyball Championship, commonly referred to as EuroVolley Men 2026, will be the 34th edition of the biannual continental tournament for men's national volleyball teams, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, CEV. The tournament will be held between from 9 to 26 September 2026. It will be organised in Bulgaria, Finland, Italy and Romania, marking the fourth consecutive time EuroVolley will be held in four countries, after the multi-country hosting system was first used in 2019. The Italians will host the final in Milan.

24 teams will participate for the fourth time as well. Qualification took place in August 2024 and 2025 to decide the final 12 spots. The four co-hosts qualified automatically. Sweden will return after a 33 year absence.

After FIVB's calendar changes starting 2025, this will be the first European Championship since 1958 to be held in an even-numbered year.

The winner qualifies for the Volleyball tournament at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The top three finishers will also qualify for the 2027 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship in Poland.

Poland are the defending champions, having beaten Italy, 3–0, in the final in Rome.

On 22 June 2023, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) announced that, starting in 2026, all continental competitions would be played in even-numbered years, rather than odd-numbered.^[1]

•  Romania – On 5 December 2022, Romania was announced as the first host.^[2][3] This is Romania's first time hosting since 1963 and third in total after 1955 and 1963.

•  Bulgaria – Bulgaria was confirmed as the second host on 26 February 2024, becoming the first ever country to host back to back European Championships.^[4][5] This is Bulgaria's fifth organisation of EuroVolley, after 1950, 1981, 2015 and 2023.

•  Finland – Finnish city, Tampere, was given the hosting rights on 14 March 2024 and will host a group.^[6][7] This is the Finns fourth time holding the event, with Finland previously hosting in 1977, 1993 and 2021.

•  Italy – On 25 March 2024 Italy was announced as the fourth and final host.^[8][9] Alongside Bulgaria, Italy becomes the second country to host consecutive championships. The tournament has previously taken place in Italy in 1948, 1971, 2005, 2015 and 2023.

The following countries had expressed interest but didn't make the cut:^[10]

•  Germany – Germany had stated their interest in November 2022 and by May 2023, Germany's interest was approved by CEV with the SAP Garden in Munich being propsed as a possible venue. However, in February 2024, Germany said to CEV that they were not ready to host the event and they would focus on the 2028 edition. The Germans were in line to become the main hosts before their withdrawal. The Italians then took their hosting place as they wrote to CEV saying they wanted to host, which would later be approved.
•  Serbia – Serbia was briefly mentioned as a possible host in February 2023, but this never materialised.

24 teams qualify for the championship. The four co-hosts and the eight best teams from the 2023 edition automatically progress (in the event that one of the best eight teams is also a co-host, the next best team will inherit their place).

21 teams took part in qualification, with 12 spots on the line. The 21 teams were divided into seven groups of three, with the seven group winners plus the five best second place teams qualifying. The games were played in August 2024 and 2025. The groups were divided by the Serpentine system based off each teams' ranking.

Of the 24 teams who qualified, 21 of them were present at the previous tournament. After not even entering qualification for the 2023 edition, Sweden qualified for the first time since 1993.^[11] Latvia and Slovakia returned after a one edition absence.

Israel qualified on merit for the first time. Israel and Switzerland qualified for a second consecutive edition for the very first time. North Macedonia and Portugal continued their record appearance streaks with four.

Of the non-qualifiers, Spain failed to qualify after qualifying for the previous four championships. Montenegro failed to advance after qualifying every time since their debut in 2019. Despite narrowly missing out on qualifying automatically, Croatia was winless in qualification and didn't manage to successfully qualify.

Seven venues in seven cities, will host the tournament. After meetings in March 2025, the same city and venue as in 2023, the Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna, was chosen as Bulgaria's venue.^[13] In the same month, the BTarena in Cluj-Napoca was announced as the venue for the group in Romania.^[14] On 6 June 2025, the Nokia Arena was announced as Finland's venue.^[15] On 19 August 2025, Naples, Modena, Turin and Milan were announced as Italy's venues.^[16][17] On 14 October it was announced that Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, would replace Varna as the country's host city with Arena 8888 as the selected venue.^[18][19] This is due to the country's increased interest in volleyball after their second place finish at the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship. Sofia is allocating 500,000 Bulgarian lev for the tournament.^[20] Prior to the venue change, Varna MPs Desislav Taskov and Kristian Ganchev sent a letter asking for reassurance that Varna would keep the hosting rights after reports of Varna being replaced by Sofia came out.^[21] The director of Sports in Varna, Kristian Dimitrov, was reportedly angry with the venue swap.^[22] Varna had previous allocated 420,000 Bulgarian lev for the tournament before the change of venue.^[23]

• Four Italian venues will be used during the tournament. The Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples will host the opening match at the temporary venue at the square. The rest of the group phase will take place in Modena at the PalaPanini, the home for numerous Modena-based clubs.

• Italy's round of 16 and quarterfinal matches will be held at Turin's Palavela. The venue was built in 1961 but renovated in 2004 for the 2006 Winter Olympics, where it held figure skating and short track speed skating events. It has since organised championships in both aforementioned sports, plus Gymnastics and the 2015 Men's European Volleyball Championship.

• The semifinals and final will take place at the newly built PalaItalia in Milan. Constructed for the 2026 Winter Olympics and 2026 Winter Paralympics, this will be the venue's first championship of any sport after the games.^[24]

• In Bulgaria, the nation's biggest indoor facility, Arena 8888, would be chosen, replacing the originally chosen Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna. The established venue has hosted various competitions, with this being their third major volleyball tournament after the 2015 Men's European Volleyball Championship and 2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship. The venue has also hosted Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015.^[25]

• In Finland, the Nokia Arena would host games. Constructed in time for the 2022 IIHF World Championship, it has since hosted the 2023 IIHF World Championship and EuroBasket 2025, plus numerous high-profile concerts.^[26]

• In Romania, the BTarena will organise matches. The venue was built in 2014 but expanded in preparation for EuroBasket 2017. Romania's largest arena would later host the 2021 Women's European Volleyball Championship. Basketball team, U-BT Cluj-Napoca, plays their home games here.^[27]

• As the main organisers, Italy were seeded into Pool A,
• As the secondary venue, the Bulgaria were positioned in Pool B
• As the two countries hosting a single group, Finland and Romania are placed into Pool C and D respectively.

The final draw took place at 20:45 CET in Turin, Italy on 4 October 2025 at the Castello Normanno-Svevo.^[28][29][30] Italian journalist, Simona Rolandi and CEV press officer, Federico Ferraro, were the hosts of the final draw. Bulgarian libero Damyan Kolev, Finnish outside hitter Luka Marttila, Italian setter Fabio Vullo and Romanian middle blocker Bela Bartha were the guests for the final draw. The final draw started with the co-hosts and chosen teams being placed into their respective groups and continued with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically.

The organizers could select one team to join their pools.

The teams are seeded according to the CEV National Team rankings before the draw.^[31]

The only restriction is that the two finalists from the previous edition, Italy and Poland, were drawn in different preliminary pools so that can only play each other in the final.

The schedule was announced on 5 November 2025.^[32]

• All times are local.
• The top four teams in each pool qualify for the final round.
• Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
• Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

1. Number of matches won
2. Match points
3. Sets ratio
4. Points ratio
5. If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority is given to the team which won the match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2, 3 and 4 is made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.

• All times are local.

Tickets were released on 7 November 2025.^[33]

• Official tickets in Bulgaria
• Official tickets in Finland
• Official tickets in Italy
• Official tickets in Romania

• 2026 Women's European Volleyball Championship

• Official website
• Finnish official website