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.
Poland are the defending champions, having beaten Italy, 3–0, in the final in Milan.
Year change
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]
Host selection
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.
Rejected countries
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.
Map of qualifiers for the 2026 Men's European Volleyball Championship:
Team qualified for 2026 Men's European Volleyball Championship
Team failed to qualify
Team banned from competition
Did not enter
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.
The final draw took place at 20:45 CET in Turin, Italy on 4 October 2025 at the Castello Normanno-Svevo.[13][14] 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.
Chosen teams
The organizers could select one team to join their pools.
The teams are seeded according to the CEV National Team rankings before the draw.[15]
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.[16]
Schedule
Round
Matchday
Date
Preliminary round
All rounds
9–17 September 2026
Knockout stage
Eighth-finals
19–21 September 2026
Quarter-finals
22–23 September 2026
Semi-finals
25 September 2026
Final
26 September 2026
Venues
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.[17] In the same month, the BTarena in Cluj-Napoca was announced as the venue for the group in Romania.[18] On 6 June 2025, the Nokia Arena was announced as Finland's venue.[19] On 19 August 2025, Naples, Modena, Turin and Milan were announced as Italy's venues.[20][21] 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.[22][23] 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.[24] 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.[25] The director of Sports in Varna, Kristian Dimitrov, was reportedly angry with the venue swap.[26] Varna had previous allocated 420,000 Bulgarian lev for the tournament before the change of venue.[27]
Overview of venues
Italy
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.
Milan will host the semifinals and final. Sofia and Turin will host the knockout stage up to the quarterfinals. Cluj-Napoca, Modena, Sofia and Tampere will host preliminary round games. Naples hosted the opening match.
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.
Pool standing procedure
Number of matches won
Match points
Sets ratio
Points ratio
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.
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
Preliminary round
All times are local.
The top four teams in each pool qualify for the final round.
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Bulgaria 
Finland 
Italy 
Romania 
