The eight participating teams were split into two pools, with Italy’s Cucine Lube Civitanova, Brazil’s Praia Clube, Iran’s Foolad Sirjan Iranian and Egypt's Al Ahly SC forming Pool A and Italy’s Itas Trentino, Brazil’s Sada Cruzeiro, Iran’s Shahdab Yazd and Argentina’s Ciudad Voley competing in Pool B. The two best teams in each pool advance to the semifinals.
Scheduled for 10:00 local time (13:00 GMT), the opening match of the tournament will have five-time world champions Trentino and Shahdab, who will appear in the tournament for the first time, in Pool B. The Italians have a strong roster, highlighted by world champions Alessandro Michieletto, Daniele Lavia and Riccardo Sbertoli, while the Asians have Cuban national team middle blocker Javier Concepción and veteran Iranian national team opposite Amir Ghafour as their standouts.