2026 FIVB World Championship

    I hope Poland won't be the host. They host everything they can. It's too much, IMO.

    It's time for new countries.

    No, God, please, not Poland again :/ Knowing the FIVB and their constant greed for easy money, it probably will be us though :( Honestly, even people I know are getting sick and tired of how many events we host lately. It used to be a big deal, now it's just "Oh, we got another one? Okay then."

    Why can't Finland and Estonia get a tournament? I don't know about World Champs, but they applied to host every European Championship since Euro 2011, but always have been rejected, and they have such great fans and atmosphere too. Austria hosted a great euro in 2011. Argentina had a great World Championship tournament in 2002.

    Sadly, FIVB lately seems to have a politic of pushing as many people away from volleyball as possible and limiting their potential fan base,, so yeah, I suspect it will be either us, Brazil, Italy once again, or, in worst case scenario, Japan.

    It's all about money and profit. If the association can make a fortune out of WCH, it will fight for it. I think that's why Poland apply the event all the time. Not all the countries like Poland has such strong volleyball fans base.


    I hope Argentina and Brazil can co-host WCH. At the end it's all about money. I double the Volleyball association from Argentina and Brazil can have such strong financial support.


    Also Japan is dropping World Cup, I can foresee FIVB have difficulty finding a country to host World Cup.

    Quote from Fujii-3

    It's all about money and profit. If the association can make a fortune out of WCH, it will fight for it. I think that's why Poland apply the event all the time. Not all the countries like Poland has such strong volleyball fans base.


    I hope Argentina and Brazil can co-host WCH. At the end it's all about money. I double the Volleyball association from Argentina and Brazil can have such strong financial support.


    Also Japan is dropping World Cup, I can foresee FIVB have difficulty finding a country to host World Cup.

    Good. The World Cup and the Grand Champions Cup have always been unnecesary and all they did was make players more tired before the club season. If it were up to me, those 2 tournaments would be taken from the calendar a long time ago.

    It's official now - 32 teams will participate in the World Championship, starting with the next edition.


    In tne group stage there will be 8 pools with 4 teams each, then the 2 best teams will qualify directly to the play-offs (eightfinals, quarterfinals, semifinals, medal matches).


    This system is like a dream come true. Having play-offs start at the round of 16 is so MUCH better than having three or even two group phases.

    I don't like this format. It looks like an expanded Olympics. I like when teams play more matches before playoffs.

    Quote from Sidney

    I don't like this format. It looks like an expanded Olympics. I like when teams play more matches before playoffs.

    I think its because the players dont want to play as many matches (and rightfully so).


    this format will have less matches between "top" teams... but all of the matches in this format mean more/are more important.... in the past format... Round 1/2 have sooooo many meaningless matches

    I Just dont like the fact that maybe the draw Will make the best two teams face each other before the final.

    Maybê a play offs with 16 teams and than 2 pools of 04 teams. Semi and final.

    Quote from Polish96

    It's official now - 32 teams will participate in the World Championship, starting with the next edition.


    In tne group stage there will be 8 pools with 4 teams each, then the 2 best teams will qualify directly to the play-offs (eightfinals, quarterfinals, semifinals, medal matches).


    This system is like a dream come true. Having play-offs start at the round of 16 is so MUCH better than having three or even two group phases.

    I hope they won't rank 16 teams based on 3 group matches. Then the ranking is done based on set ratios which might end up very weird ranks. They should match group winners with runner-ups from pre-determined groups


    Only bright side is, we will probably see Haak playing in world championship. It was a pity that one of the best players in the world was missing second biggest event of this sport

    Quote from serdar

    I hope they won't rank 16 teams based on 3 group matches. Then the ranking is done based on set ratios which might end up very weird ranks. They should match group winners with runner-ups from pre-determined groups


    Only bright side is, we will probably see Haak playing in world championship. It was a pity that one of the best players in the world was missing second biggest event of this sport

    They seem to be following the format FIFA world Cup used do far, so it'll probably be A1 vs B2, B1vsA2 in the eightfinals, then the winners play in quarterfinals etc.

    Quote from avid

    I think its because the players dont want to play as many matches (and rightfully so).


    this format will have less matches between "top" teams... but all of the matches in this format mean more/are more important.... in the past format... Round 1/2 have sooooo many meaningless matches

    If they want to have less meaningless matches, just reduce the number of teams

    Quote from Polish96

    They seem to be following the format FIFA world Cup used do far, so it'll probably be A1 vs B2, B1vsA2 in the eightfinals, then the winners play in quarterfinals etc.

    The difference of participants' level for football is not as huge compared to volleyball. Games between 17-24 and first tier teams were already boring. Adding 25-32th teams would make some games even more boring. It is not the greatest way to promote such a big event🤦