The 82nd edition of the Italian men’s volleyball league, the SuperLega Credem Banca is fast approaching, officially serving off on Saturday, October 17, at 18:00 local time (16:00 UTC), with the first-leg match between Rana Verona and Cucine Lube Civitanova. Once again, the new season is expected to offer dramatic twists, thrilling matches and victories that the great stars of international volleyball who flock to the SuperLega can deliver to the delight of the league’s fans worldwide. As usual, all matches will be streamed live and on demand on VBTV.
Superlega 2026/27
Verona and Lube to get new SuperLega season underway on Saturday
Watch the Italian SuperLega live on VBTV
Published 03:37, 15 Oct 2026
SuperLega’s new addition Simeon Nikolov will have the opportunity to show his magic in Saturday’s season opener (source: legavolley.it)
- Watch the Italian SuperLega on VBTV
The format
The 2026-2027 Italian men’s SuperLega Credem Banca season will start off with a 12-team double round-robin home-and-away regular season, spread across 22 legs of six matches, with points earned, victories earned and set ratios, in that order, serving as the first three ranking criteria.
The top eight teams after the first round-robin (11th leg) will qualify for the 2026-2027 Del Monte® Coppa Italia quarterfinals.
The top eight teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the SuperLega playoffs, consisting of best-of-five quarterfinal, semifinal and final series, with the higher placed teams in each of these playoff match-ups hosting games one and three, as well as game five, if necessary. The 2026-2027 Italian champions will be known at the end of the final playoff, scheduled on May 5, 8 or 11, depending on how many games it takes to complete the series.
An important novelty this season is the introduction of relegation playouts, involving the bottom three or four teams of the regular season, depending on whether the gap between the ninth-placed and the 12th-placed teams is over seven points. In both cases, the playouts will be played in a double round-robin home-and-away format, with the participants starting with bonus points, depending on their regular season standings. The bottom-placed team at the end of the playouts will be relegated to the country’s second division.
There will also be playoffs for Italy’s fifth spot in the European Cups, which will determine the team to represent the country in the third-tier continental club competition, the CEV Challenge Cup. The format will depend on whether or not the regular season winners, who are automatically qualified for the CEV Champions League, progress beyond the quarterfinals. The remaining two Champions League spots and the CEV Cup spot will be distributed among the other teams, based on their final standings after the end of the playoffs.
The teams
Reigning club world and European champions Sir Susa Scai Perugia are also the defending Italian champions, entering the new season as one of the big favorites for the title. Last season, they also claimed the Italian super cup trophy.
2025-2026 runners-up Cucine Lube Civitanova and bronze medalists Rana Verona, who also won the Italy Cup for the first time in the club’s history, are aiming at the highest national honors in the upcoming SuperLiga as well.
So are Itas Trentino Trento, who lived up to the status of favorites for most of the regular season, but injuries prevented them from ending the season as successfully as they were hoping.
Tinet Prata di Pordenone are the SuperLega newcomers this season. They earned their promotion from the second division and replaced relegated Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina among the 12 elite teams.
Two of the returning teams have made changes to their competition names. Last season’s Sonepar Padova Padua and MA Acqua San Bernardo Cuneo will be known as Pallavolo Padova Padua and Acqua Sant'Anna Cuneo, respectively, this season.
So, the full line-up of 12 SuperLega participants consists of Acqua Sant'Anna Cuneo, Allianz Milan, Cisterna Volley, Cucine Lube Civitanova, Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza, Itas Trentino Trento, Pallavolo Padova Padua, Rana Verona, Sir Susa Scai Perugia, Tinet Prata di Pordenone, Valsa Group Modena and Vero Volley Monza.
The stars
The Italian SuperLega is arguably considered the world’s strongest national league, mostly because it attracts many of the world’s best volleyball players, who can guarantee top-level competition and entertainment.
Conducted by playmaking wizard Simone Giannelli and with outside hitters Oleh Plotnytskyi of Ukraine and Kamil Semeniuk of Poland, and Argentinean middle blockers Agustin Loser and Sebastian Sole remaining at the core of the team, defending champs Sir have further signed up Belgian scoring machine Ferre Reggers and France’s rising star outside Mathis Henno.
Silver medalists Lube will still be spearheaded by the league’s best scorer last season, Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov, but now he is joined by his younger brother, prodigy setter Simeon Nikolov. Mattia Bottolo and Canada’s Eric Loeppky in the outside hitter department, middles Giovanni Gargiulo and Canada’s Jackson Howe, as well as libero Fabio Balaso are also among the many stars featured on the Lube roster this season.
Olympic beach volleyball champion Anders Mol of Norway, making headlines with a rare beach-to-indoor conversion, is expected to be a major attraction for both SuperLega and beach volleyball fans. The Norwegian star is set to compete for the Rana Verona opposite position with another newcomer to the club, Austria’s Paul Buchegger, last season’s best server of the SuperLega. The cup winners have also preserved a number of star core players like American setter Micah Christenson, outside hitters Rok Mozic of Slovenia and Noumory Keita of Mali, and middle blocker Lorenzo Cortesia, and have added distinguished middle Simone Anzani to the squad.
The setter-opposite duo of Paolo Porro and Alessandro Bovolenta is staying with Gas Sales. So are middle blocker Gianluca Galassi and Cuban outside Jose Gutierrez, now joined by American striker Cooper Robinson and Canadian middle Merrick McHenry.
Middle blocker Roberto Russo, outsides Thomas Jaeschke of USA and Arthur Bento of Brazil, and Slovenia’s rising star opposite Nik Mujanovic are the most notable new additions to Modena’s roster, which still features the likes of Luca Porro, French setter Amir Tizi-Oualou and Australian libero Luke Perry, last season’s best digger and best receiver of the league.
Playmaker Riccardo Sbertoli, outside hitters Alessandro Michieletto and Daniele Lavia, libero Gabriele Laurenzano and Brazilian middle Flavio Gualberto are among the returning star players in Trentino’s line-up, while French opposite Theo Faure, Serbian middle Aleksandar Nedeljkovic and Brazilian outside Adriano Xavier Cavalcante are the key incoming transfers to the club.
Mighty Cuban star middle blocker Robertlandy Simon and playmaker Santiago Orduna have joined the team of Allianz. Thomas Beretta, the league’s best blocker last season, will play cross court with incoming Bulgarian middle Iliya Petkov on the Vero Volley squad.
Incoming opposite Amir Mohammad Golzadeh of Iran highlights Padova’s new line-up. Talented French teen outside Noa Duflos-Rossi can show his growth as a new player of Cisterna. Iranian outside Poriya Khanzadeh looks set to be the new leader of Cuneo, while SuperLega rookies Prata have shown their ambition by signing up the likes of Russian opposite Krill Klets, Belgian middle Wout D'Heer and outsides Lukas Bergmann of Brazil and Nooa Marttila of Finland.
