36 national teams will race for VNL honours from 4 June to 3 August
- VNL 2025 to be played with 18 teams per gender for the first time
- The teams are split into three pools of six for every competition week of the Preliminary Phase
- Women’s VNL gold medal showdown to be played on 27 July, the men’s final on 3 August
2025 will offer the seventh edition of the annual Volleyball Nations League, which will also be the first one with an expanded line-up of 18 national teams per gender, following the introduction of a new format aiming to enhance the VNL experience for athletes, fans, host cities and all other stakeholders alike. The goal is to ensure the VNL continues to be a spectacular top-calibre competition sparking volleyball fever across the world.
As usual, the VNL will take place at the beginning of the national team season, with the first games to be played on 4 June and the last – on 3 August.
To expand the number of teams, none of the participants in the 2024 edition were relegated, while the 2024 Volleyball Challenger Cup winner and the world’s highest-ranked team in each gender earned the right to join VNL 2025. For the first time, the participants are no longer divided into core and challenger teams, which means that whoever takes the bottom 18th place in the competition’s final standings in each gender will be relegated, to be replaced by the respective highest-ranked team (not yet qualified) for the following VNL season.
With the expanded number of participating teams, there will be a new structure of the Preliminary Phase schedule. Each participating team will still play 12 matches spread across three competition weeks. However, now there will be three pools per week played at three different venues with six teams each. The number of competition days will be reduced from six to five per week. The players will also benefit from an additional week of rest. There will be no VNL competition for either gender during the week after the second competition week in the men’s tournament.
In this new format, a total of 216 matches will take place during the Preliminary Phase, which brings the total number of games per season to 232, including the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the medal matches in both genders. There will be no change in the format of the Final Rounds.
The women’s VNL 2024 final in Bangkok
Women’s Volleyball Nations League 2025
After winning the last edition of the women’s Volleyball Challenger Cup in 2024, Czechia are now set to make their rookie appearance in the VNL. After a two-year absence, Belgium return to the VNL earning that right as the highest-ranked team in the FIVB World Ranking.
They are joining the 16 teams that competed for VNL honours in 2024: three-time VNL champions United States of America, two-time winners and reigning Olympic champions Italy, VNL 2023 winners Türkiye, 2024 runners-up Japan, two-time back-to-back bronze medallists Poland, three-time silver medallists Brazil, three-time medallists China, reigning world champions Serbia, as well as Bulgaria, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Korea, Netherlands and Thailand.
2024 VNL champions Italy will start the defence of their title in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a remake of the Olympic final in Paris against USA. The other pools of the first competition week, from 4 to 8 June, will be hosted by Beijing in China and Ottawa in Canada. For the second competition week, from 18 to 22 June, the women’s VNL will visit Hong Kong in China, Istanbul in Türkiye and Belgrade in Serbia. Finally, Kanto in Japan, Apeldoorn in the Netherlands and Arlington in the USA will welcome the deciding third competition week battles from 9 to 13 July.
The Final Round will be played from 23 to 27 July.
Men’s Volleyball Nations League 2025
China will mark their return to the men’s VNL. They were relegated in 2023 and did not participate in 2024, but made sure their absence did not last longer than a season by winning the 2024 Volleyball Challenger Cup. Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed the right to compete in VNL 2025 via the FIVB World Ranking and are set to make their rookie appearance in the competition.
They will contest the spots in the Final Round with last year’s participants: two-time VNL winners and reigning back-to-back Olympic champions France, 2023 VNL winners Poland, 2021 VNL winners Brazil, four-time VNL medallists USA, last year’s runners-up Japan, reigning world champions Italy, as well as Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia and Türkiye.
The Preliminary Phase will start on 11 June. The first competition week’s pools will be hosted by Xi’an in China, Quebec City in Canada and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with action ending on 15 June. For the second competition week from 25 to 29 June, the 18 participating teams will split between Burgas in Bulgaria, Belgrade in Serbia and Chicago in the USA. The deciding matches in the race for the Final Round spots will be welcomed by Kanto in Japan, Gdansk in Poland and Ljubljana in Slovenia and will take place from 15 to 20 July.
The Finals will be held from 30 July to 3 August.
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