Men’s turn to battle it out for 2025 club world title

Just a couple of days after the end of the women’s event in Sao Paulo, the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship will get underway in another Brazilian city, Belem, on Tuesday, December 16, with eight teams competing for the coveted trophy, which one of them will lift on Sunday, December 21. Three Brazilian club teams – Praia Clube Uberlandia, Sada Cruzeiro Volei Belo Horizonte and Volei Renata Campinas – will be joined by Italy’s Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, Japan’s Osaka Bluteon, Libya’s Swehly Misrata, Poland’s Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie and Qatar’s Al-Rayyan in the race for world honors.

• Watch the FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship on VBTV

The eight teams were split into two round-robin pools of four. The matches of the pool stage will be played from Tuesday to Thursday, with the pool winners and the pool runners-up advancing to the semifinals to be held on Saturday, after a rest day on Friday. The medal matches for bronze and for gold will take place on Sunday.

Al-Rayyan, Aluron, Praia and Renata make up Pool A.

Al-Rayyan qualified for the Club World Championship as the winners of Asia’s AVC Champions League and will compete in the planetary tournament for the fourth time. In 2014, they reached the final and earned a silver medal. While experienced Serbian setter Milos Stevanovic headlines the list of foreign players on the squad, Senegalese-born Qatari middle blocker Papemaguette Diagne (Pape) is probably the best-known name on Al-Rayyan’s roster.

The silver medalists of Europe’s CEV Champions League, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, will compete at a Club World Championship for the first time, but with standouts like outside hitters Bartosz Kwolek or USA’s Aaron Russell on the roster, they could be among the main candidates for the medals.

Praia Clube Uberlandia finished second in the 2025 South American Club Championship and secured their spot at the upcoming Club World Championship. It will be their second appearance in the competition, after their debut in 2024, when they finished in eighth place. With stellar presence from the likes of middle blocker Isac Santos, Praia will certainly be aiming higher this year.

The second Brazilian team in Pool A, Volei Renata Campinas, is in the role of tournament hosts. They will also play at a Club World Championship for the second time. In 2022, they finished in sixth place out of six competing teams, but with legendary playmaker Bruno Rezende conducting the offense and Argentinean striker Bruno Lima spearheading the attack, they will be a team to watch this year.

Pool B is composed of Osaka, Sada Cruzeiro, Sir and Swehly.

Osaka Bluteon qualified for the Club World Championship as Asia’s AVC Champions League runners-up. When they participated in the 2013 Club World Championship under their old name Panasonic Panthers, they finished in fifth place. Now, opposite Yuji Nishida, French setter Antoine Brizard, Cuban outside Miguel Lopez and the rest of their teammates have potential to make the club’s second appearance in the competition a really memorable one.

Defending club world champions and reigning South American champions Sada Cruzeiro Volei Belo Horizonte are one of the favorites for the title again. They are one of the most decorated teams in the history of the competition. In addition to their five titles – in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2024 – they have two silver and two bronze medals in their impressive collection out of a total of 12 campaigns. The names of last year’s Dream Team middle blocker Lucas Saatkamp, Dream Team setter Matheus Goncalves and Dream Team libero Alexandre Elias stand out in this year’s roster as well.

Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia are another star-studded squad that is expected to be a main contender for the title. Arriving in Belem as the reigning European champions, they will make their third appearance at a Club World Championship featuring the likes of setter Simone Giannelli, outsides Oleh Plotnytskyi of Ukraine, Kamil Semeniuk of Poland and Yuki Ishikawa of Japan, middle blockers Agustin Loser and Sebastian Sole of Argentina, and Roberto Russo, and libero Massimo Colaci among the many top-caliber players on the squad. At both of their previous participations, the Block Devils claimed the world title.

Swehly Misrata emerged as the first Libyan team in history to triumph as continental club champions and earn the right to compete at the Club World Championships, after conquering the title at the African Club Championship earlier this year. Starring experienced Egyptians - opposite Ahmed Salah Abdelhay, setter Abdallah Abdalsalam and outside hitter Ahmed Shafik, as well as Libyan middle blocker Anas Alwaddani – all individual awardees at the African Club Championship – Swehly will try to shrug off the role of underdogs against the mighty opponents they are about to meet.

Sada Cruzeiro and Osaka Bluteon will meet in the tournament’s opening match on Tuesday at 10:00 local time (13:00 UTC).

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship: full schedule

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