2022 and 2023 club world champions Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia will have the opportunity to chase their third title at the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship. On Sunday, the Italian powerhouse celebrated their first ever continental crown in Europe’s CEV Champions League and along with runners-up Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie of Poland qualified for this year’s global event as Europe’s representatives.
Two-time world champs Sir set to return to Club Worlds as European champions
Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie qualify for Club World Championship for the first time
Published 08:19, 19 May 2025

Sir’s players triumphant with the CEV Champions League trophy (source: CEV)
Sir Sicoma Monini will participate in the planet’s top club event for the third time, after claiming the world crown at both of their previous two appearances. Aluron CMC Warta, on the other hand, are set to make their historic debut at the Club World Championships.
The stellar squad from Perugia won nine of their 10 matches during the Champions League season, losing only their last match in Pool D, after they had already guaranteed themselves the top of the pool standings and a direct ticket to the quarterfinals. At the Final Four event held at the Atlas Arena in Lodz over the weekend, Sir mastered a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-22) semifinal win over Turkiye’s Halkbank Ankara on Friday evening and squeezed out a hard-fought 3-2 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 15-10) victory in Sunday’s final against Warta to stamp their historic success. The second Champions League final in the club’s history was played in front of over almost 11 thousand spectators on the stands in the Polish city.
Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie crowned a nine-game winning streak in the competition with a nerve-wracking comeback in Saturday’s semifinal against Polish rival Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj. They caught up from two sets down to prompt a tie-breaker, which they won deep into the overtime to stamp a 3-2 (19-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-19, 22-20) victory and secure their historic appearance in the Champions League final and at the Club World Championship.
Goodnight (or good morning) from the #CLVolleyM 🥈medalists 💛💚 #JurassicKnights #volleyball pic.twitter.com/khIcuPMxO2
— Aluron CMC Warta in English (@AluronCMC_en) May 18, 2025
To please the home crowd in Lodz with a second Polish team on the podium, Jastrzebski Wegiel achieved a 3-1 (25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 25-18) victory over HalkBank for the bronze, their fifth Champions League medal, after finishing with silver in 2024 and 2023.
A total of 34 teams representing Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkiye took part in the 2024-2025 Champions League season.
Sir’s 28-year-old setter Simone Giannelli added yet another Most Valuable Player (MVP) award to his rich collection of individual accolades. It was his first Champions League MVP award, but he has also picked up the prestigious nominations at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Cub World Championship (2022), the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship (2022) and the CEV Men’s Volleyball European Championship (2021), among others.
Giannelli was also voted on the 2024-2025 Champions League Dream Team along with opposite Wassim Ben Tara (Sir), outside hitters Tomasz Fornal (Jastrzebski Wegiel) and Oleh Plotnytskyi (Sir), middle blockers Anton Brehme (Jastrzebski Wegiel) and Mateusz Bieniek (Warta), and libero Luke Perry (Warta).
