Qatar’s Al-Rayyan and Japan’s Osaka Bluteon will battle it out on Sunday for the inaugural AVC Men’s Champions League crown. The two teams won their semifinals at the Shimadzu Arena in Kyoto on Saturday and secured their tickets to the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship, leaving Japan’s Suntory Sunbirds Osaka and Iran’s Foolad Sirjan Iranian to settle the bronze in the third-place game, also on Sunday.

• Watch the AVC Men’s Champions League on VBTV

Al-Rayyan were the first team to progress to the gold medal showdown. In a nail-biting five-set drama against Suntory Sunbirds Osaka, the Qatari team came back from a set down twice to push the battle to an overtime tie-breaker resolution and celebrated a 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 17-15) victory in the end.

Al-Rayyan’s Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz was truly on fire and hammered out a fantastic 40 points towards the victory. He spiked 31 points at a 61% success rate, hit five aces from the serving line and raised four kill blocks. Slovenian outside hitter Tine Urnaut added 12 points, including three aces.

Suntory Sunbirds’ Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy also registered a 61% success rate in offense. In addition, he fired three aces and put up two kill blocks to lead his team with a 30-point total. His teammate, outside Ran Takahashi, achieved 70% success in spiking to finish with a total of 20 points. Middle blocker Taishi Onodera hit 10 kills at an even higher success rate, 71%, and also reached the double digits with a total of 13 points.

In the second semifinal, Osaka Bluteon delighted the home crowd in Japan with a 3-1 (25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 25-19)-vs-osaka+bluteon+(jpn)) victory over Foolad Sirjan Iranian, thus dethroning last year’s continental champions, who won the last edition of the Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship in 2024. Foolad outblocked their opponents in the match by 12-5 in stuffs, but Bluteon outplayed the Iranian team in all other point-scoring elements.

Swinging at a 58% success rate, Osaka’s Cuban outside hitter Miguel Lopez led the way to success with a match-high 24 points, including one ace and one kill block. Opposite Yuji Nishida added another 18 points, including three aces, while the other outside Shoma Tomita finished with 12 points.

French star outside hitter Earvin Ngapeth was Foolad’s most prolific scorer with 20 points. He chipped in with two aces and two kill blocks. Cuban middle blocker Javier Concepcion impressed with six stuffs to tally up 11 points. With two kill blocks to his name, outside Amirhossein Esfandiar also finished the match with 11 points.

Sunday’s final between Al-Rayyan and Bluteon will serve off at 16:05 local time (07:05 UTC). Four hours earlier, Suntory Sunbirds and Foolad will cross swords for the bronze.

AVC Men’s Champions League 2025 first-place match:
May 18, 16:05 local (07:05 UTC): Al-Rayyan (QAT) v Osaka Bluteon (JPN)

AVC Men’s Champions League 2025 third-place match:
May 18, 12:05 local (03:05 UTC): Suntory Sunbirds Osaka (JPN) v Foolad Sirjan Iranian (IRI)

AVC Men’s Champions League 2025: schedule, results, statistics and standings

Quick links:
VBTV
Volleyball World Facebook
Volleyball World X
Volleyball World Instagram
Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter