2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship explained

Competition:FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship
Continent:World
Gender:men
Type:21
Year:2025
Dates:21–31 August 2025
Teams:24
Confederations:5
Host:China
City:Jiangmen
Middle Blockers:| opposite_spiker = | libero = | website =| last = 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship| next = 2027 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship}}

The 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship will be the 23rd edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship, contested by the men's national teams under the age of 21 of the members of the French: [[Fédération Internationale de Volleyball]] (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. It will be held in China from 18 to 31 August 2025.[1]

Starting with this edition, the tournament will be expanded to include 24 teams instead of the 16 teams of previous editions, following the decision adopted by FIVB in June 2023.[2]

Host selection

On 28 March 2024, FIVB opened the bidding process for member associations whose countries were interested in hosting one of the four Age Group World Championships in 2025 (i.e., U19 Boys' and Girls' World Championships and U21 Men's and Women's World Championships).[3] The expression of interest of the member associations had to be submitted to FIVB by 30 April 2024, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2).[4]

On 10 September 2024, FIVB announced that China was selected as the host for the 2024 Boys' U21 World Championship.[5]

Qualification

A total of 24 national teams will qualify for the final tournament. In addition to the host team and the defending champions who qualified automatically, 20 other teams will qualify through five separate continental competitions which were required to be held no later than 31 December 2024. Two remaining teams will enter the tournament via the Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking (as of 31 December 2024) among the teams not yet qualified.

The slot allocation per confederation was set as follows:

  • Defending champion (Iran): 1
  • AVC (Asia & Oceania): 4
  • CAVB (Africa): 3
  • CEV (Europe): 6
  • CSV (South America): 3
  • NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean): 4
  • Host: 1
  • Top teams not yet qualified as per Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking: 2
ConfederationQualifying tournamentTeam qualifiedAppearancesPrevious best performance
FirstLast
AVC
Host nation17th19772019Runners-up (1977)
Defending champions15th19932023 (2019, 2023)
2024 Asian Men's U20 Championship
14th19772019 (1987)
14th19772017 (1989)
2nd1989 (1989)
1stDebutNone
Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking4th19992023 (2023)
CAVB
2024 Men's U20 African Nations Championship
14th19852023 (1999, 2005)
15th19812023 (2003, 2023)
8th19992021 (2005)
CEV
2024 Men's U20 European Championship
7th19852015 (1999)
7tha19912023 (1993)
11th19852023 (1991)
17th19852023 (2021)
4th19992017 (1999)
4th20132017 (2013, 2015)
Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking13th19892023 (1997, 2003, 2017)
CSV
2024 Men's U21 South American Championship
23rd19772023 (1993, 2001, 2007, 2009)
2nd1977 (1977)
18th19772023 (2011, 2015)
NORCECA
2024 Men's U21 NORCECA Championship
11th19772023 (2011)
14th19772023 (1999)
15th19812021 (1987, 2009, 2017)
6th19892019 (1997)

a

Competition formula changes

In June 2023 during a three-day meeting in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the FIVB Board of Administration approved the proposal made by its Volleyball Council to increase the number of participating teams to 24 in its Age Group World Championships (U19 and U21 in both genders).[6] Consequently, the distribution of quotas by confederation for the Women's U21 World Championship was modified regarding previous editions, ensuring one automatic quota for the defending champion and assigning two quotas based on the corresponding FIVB Age Group World Ranking.

The new competition formula was in line with the one adopted for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, which was also contested by 24 teams.[7]

Pools composition

Draw

The draw for the pools composition will held on 4 December 2024 at the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.[8] The 24 participating teams will be split into four single round-robin pools of six with the host nations and the reigning world champions receiving the highest seeds. The rest of the qualified teams are seeded in a serpentine system based on their positions in the respective FIVB World Rankings.[9]

Men's U21 FIVB World Ranking of each team as of 4 November 2024 are shown in brackets, except the hosts China who ranked 66th.

The draw procedure also followed the serpentine system and was as follows:
  • Teams from pot 4 were drawn first and were placed in line 6 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A.
  • Teams from pot 3 were then drawn and placed in line 5 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D.
  • Teams from pot 2 were then drawn and were placed in line 4 of each pool starting from pool D to pool A.
  • Teams from pot 1 were then drawn and placed in line 3 of each pool starting from pool A to pool D.

The pools composition after the draw was as follow:

+ Pool A
width=150Team
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
+ Pool B
width=150Team
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
+ Pool C
width=150Team
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
+ Pool D
width=150Team
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6

Format

According to the new competition format, the top four teams from the final standings in each pool will advance to the eighthfinals, while the remaining two will continue their participation in the playoffs for the distribution of the places from 17th to 24th.

Preliminary round

Pool D

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Wang . Yongfeng . Zhou . Yuan . zh:中国获得2025年U21男排世锦赛承办权 中国排球国家队明年将全面征战国际大赛 . China won the right to host the 2025 U21 Men's Volleyball World Championships The Chinese volleyball national team will compete in international competitions next year . https://volleyballchina.com/newsinfo/7563800.html . . 10 September 2024 . 10 September 2024.
  2. FIVB Board Of Administration Approves Key Proposals From FIVB Commissions And Councils . . 2 April 2024 . 5 July 2023.
  3. Get Ready For More Volleyball Spectacles: Bidding Process Opens For Age Group World Championships In 2025! . . 2 April 2024 . 28 March 2024.
  4. Web site: FIVB VOLLEYBALL AGE GROUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025 Expression of Interest & Hosting Conditions. FIVB. 28 March 2024.
  5. . FIVB U19 and U21 Volleyball World Championships hosts announced! . . 10 September 2024 . 10 September 2024.
  6. Upcoming Volleyball Events Discussed At Volleyball Council Meeting . . 2 December 2022.
  7. Web site: Formula . Volleyball World . 1 April 2024.
  8. Web site: 2025 FIVB Volleyball Youth World Championships’ pools to be drawn on 4 December. FIVB. fivb.com. 26 November 2024.
  9. Web site: Drawing of Lots - Volleyball Youth World Championship 2025. FIVB. YouTube. 4 December 2024.