This article describes the qualification for the 2021 Men's European Volleyball Championship.[1]
Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland as host countries were directly qualified. The eight best placed teams at the 2019 edition also gained direct entries into the tournament.26 teams had registered for participation but Denmark later withdrew due to restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] So, 25 teams competed for the remaining 12 places at the final tournament.
| Means of qualification | Qualifier | Means of qualification | Qualifier | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Countries | Qualification | Pool A | |||
| Pool B | |||||
| Pool C | |||||
| Pool D | |||||
| 2019 European Championship | Pool E | ||||
| Pool F | |||||
| Pool G | |||||
| Best runners-up | |||||
| Total 24 | |||||
| width=40 | Rank | width=180 | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | |||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | |||
| 13 | |||
| 14 | |||
| 15 | |||
| 16 | |||
| 17 | |||
| 18 | |||
| 19 | |||
| 20 | |||
| 21 | |||
| 22 | |||
| 23 | |||
| 24 |
| width=10px bgcolor=#ccffcc | Qualified for the 2021 European Championship | ||
| width=10px bgcolor=#87ceeb | Qualified as hosts for the 2021 European Championship |
There being seven pools of either three or four teams each, the winners of each pool and the 5 best runners-up qualified for the 2021 European Championship. The pools were played in a double round-robin tournaments format officially from 30 August 2020 to 16 May 2021, according to the CEV web site. Since there was a different number of teams across the seven pools, the results of the matches played with the teams finishing last in the pools of four were discarded in order to determine the five best runners-up across all pools.
Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their CEV European Ranking as of 1 January 2020.[3] [4] But, Denmark withdrew after the draw. Rankings are shown in brackets.
| width=24% | Pool A | width=24% | Pool B | width=28% | Pool C | width=24% | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (8) | (10) | (11) | (14) | ||||
| (26) | (25) | (24) | (23) | ||||
| (27) | (28) | (30) | |||||
| (47) | (41) |
| width=33% | Pool E | width=33% | Pool F | width=33% | Pool G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (17) | (18) | (19) | |||
| (22) | (21) | (20) | |||
| (30) | (32) | (33) | |||
| (39) | (36) | (34) |
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