Current season, competition or edition: 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship | |
| Sport | Volleyball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949; 77 years ago (1949) |
| First season | 1949 |
| CEO | Ary Graça |
| No. of teams | 32 (finals) |
| Continent | World (FIVB) |
| Most recent champions |  Italy(5th title) |
| Most titles |  Soviet Union(6 titles) |
| Streaming partner | Volleyball TV (since 2018) |
| Official website | Volleyball World Championship |
| Tournaments |
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TheFIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship is an internationalvolleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members ofFédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variable, but since1962, they were held every four years. The tournament will be held biennially starting in 2025.[1]
The current champion isItaly, who won their fifth title at the2025 tournament, defeatingBulgaria in the final.
The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called theWorld Championship Finals. The former format was 24 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month.
The 21 World Championship tournaments have been won by seven different national teams: theSoviet Union six times;Italy five times;Brazil andPoland three times each;Czechoslovakia twice; andEast Germany and theUnited States, once each.
The history of the World Championship goes back to the beginnings of volleyball as a professional, high-level sport. One of the first concrete measures taken by theFIVB after its foundation in 1947 was the establishment of an international competition involving teams from more than one continent. In 1949, the first edition was played inPrague,Czechoslovakia. At that point, the tournament was still restricted to Europe.
Three years later, the event was expanded to include nations from Asia, and began to be held in 4-year cycles. By the following edition, there were also teams fromSouth,Central and North America.
Since volleyball was to be added to the Olympic Program in 1964, the 4-cycles were advanced 2 years after the fourth edition (1960), so that the World Championship may alternate with theSummer Olympic Games. As of 1970, teams from Africa also took part in the competition, and the original goal of having members from all five continental confederations in the games was achieved.
The number of teams involved in the games has changed significantly over the years. Following volleyball's increase in popularity, they rose steadily to over 20 in the 1970s and part of the 1980s, were then cut short to 16 in the 1990s, and finally set up to 24 after 2002. Today, the World Championship is the most comprehensive of all events organized by the FIVB, and arguably the most important, alongside theOlympic Games.[2]
Until 1974, the host nation of the tournament organized both the men's and the women's events, with the single exception of the 1966/1967 games, which took place in different years. Since 1978, this practice has been only occasionally observed, for instance, in 1998 and in the 2006 edition, which was held, as the former was, in Japan.
On 15 October 2022, FIVB announced the expansion of the World Championships and the changes to the competition formula. A total of 32 teams are to compete for future editions of the tournament.[3]
On 22 June 2023, the Volleyball Calendar 2025–2028 approved by FIVB showed that World Championships are to be played biannually in odd years. The first reformed World Championships will be held in 2025 with 32 teams in thenew formula.[1]
The history of the World Championship clearly demonstrates how volleyball was originally dominated by European nations.
The first two editions were won by theSoviet Union. In 1956, twice runner-upCzechoslovakia took the gold. There followed two more consecutive wins for theSoviet Union, in both cases overCzechoslovakia. The Czechs won a gold medal in the 1966 edition.
In 1970,East Germany prevailed overBulgaria for their first and only title. In 1974, theSoviet Union threatened to take the lead once more, but ended up being defeated byPoland at the final. Nevertheless, they would confirm their leadership by winning, for the third time, two editions in a row.
1986 saw the first relevant confrontation betweenUnited States, the rising major force of the decade, and the traditional leaderSoviet Union after the Olympic boycotts of 1980 and 1984. As would be the case two years later at theSeoul Olympic Games, the issue was settled in favour of the Americans led byKarch Kiraly andSteve Timmons.Italy completely dominated the competition in the 1990s, winning all the editions that took place in this decade (1990, 1994, 1998), led by such players asLorenzo Bernardi andAndrea Giani.
In the 2000s,Brazil became the leading force in the sport, also winning three consecutive editions (2002, 2006 and 2010), the first of which inBuenos Aires, Argentina, the same stage where the Brazilians had been runners-up in 1982. In 2014, hostsPoland defeated Brazil in four sets at the final, achieving their second gold medal and preventing what would have been a historic fourth title in a row. In 2018, Poland won a second consecutive title, again defeating Brazil in the final. In 2022, Poland, playing at home, missed the opportunity to win three consecutive editions by losing in the final toItaly, who won their fourth World title. In 2025, Italy repeated their success by beating Bulgaria in the final match.
As of 2025, 21 editions of the men's Volleyball World Championship have been played: 17 went to European teams, and four toAmerican teams (three times toBrazil and once to theUnited States).
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The competition formula of the FIVB World Championship has been constantly changed to fit the different number of teams that participate in each edition. The following rules usually apply:
A totally brand new competition formula was announced by FIVB. A total of 32 teams will compete in the World Championship. The teams will be divided into 8 groups of 4 teams for the round-robin phase with 2 best teams per group moving into the direct knockout phase: round of 16, quarterfinals, semi-finals and final.[3]
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soviet Union | 6 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 2 | Italy | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 |  Brazil | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 |  Poland | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 |  Czechoslovakia | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 6 |  United States | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 7 |  East Germany | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 |  Bulgaria | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 9 |  Cuba | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
 Romania | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 11 |  Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Russia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Yugoslavia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 14 |  Japan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 15 |  Argentina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Germany | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Serbia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (18 entries) | 21 | 21 | 21 | 63 | |
List of hosts by number of championships hosted.
| Times hosted | Nations | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Italy | 1978, 2010, 2018* |
| Poland | 2014, 2022*, 2027 | |
| 2 | Argentina | 1982, 2002 |
| Brazil | 1960, 1990 | |
| Bulgaria | 1970, 2018* | |
| Czechoslovakia | 1949, 1966 | |
| France | 1956, 1986 | |
| Japan | 1998, 2006 | |
| Soviet Union | 1952, 1962 | |
| 1 |  Greece | 1994 |
 Mexico | 1974 | |
 Philippines | 2025 | |
 Qatar | 2029 | |
 Slovenia | 2022* |
Rudi Schumann (GDR)
Stanisław Gościniak (POL) Vyacheslav Zaytsev (USSR) Philippe Blain (FRA) Andrea Lucchetta (ITA) Lorenzo Bernardi (ITA)
Rafael Pascual (ESP) Marcos Milinkovic (ARG) Gilberto Godoy Filho (BRA) Murilo Endres (BRA) Mariusz Wlazły (POL) Bartosz Kurek (POL) Simone Giannelli (ITA) Alessandro Michieletto (ITA)Boldface denotes active volleyball players and highest medal count among all players (including these who not included in these tables) per type.
| Rank | Player | Country | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco Bracci | Italy | 1990 | 1998 | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| Dante Amaral | Brazil | 2002 | 2010 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| Ferdinando De Giorgi | Italy | 1990 | 1998 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| Andrea Gardini | Italy | 1990 | 1998 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| Andrea Giani | Italy | 1990 | 1998 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| Gilberto "Giba" Godoy Filho | Brazil | 2002 | 2010 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| Rodrigo Santana | Brazil | 2002 | 2010 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| 8 | Josef Musil | Czechoslovakia | 1952 | 1966 | 2 | 3 | – | 5 |
| 9 | Bohumil Golián | Czechoslovakia | 1956 | 1966 | 2 | 2 | – | 4 |
| Vyacheslav Zaytsev | Soviet Union | 1974 | 1986 | 2 | 2 | – | 4 |
The table shows players who have won at least 4 medals in total at the World Championships.
| Rank | Player | Country | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Musil | Czechoslovakia | 1952 | 1966 | 2 | 3 | – | 5 |
| 2 | Bohumil Golián | Czechoslovakia | 1956 | 1966 | 2 | 2 | – | 4 |
| Vyacheslav Zaytsev | Soviet Union | 1974 | 1986 | 2 | 2 | – | 4 | |
| 4 | Jaromír Paldus | Czechoslovakia | 1949 | 1960 | 1 | 3 | – | 4 |
| 5 | Bruno Rezende | Brazil | 2010 | 2022 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Lucas Saatkamp | Brazil | 2010 | 2022 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| 7 | Gheorghe Corbeanu |  Romania | 1956 | 1966 | – | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Eduard Derzsei | Romania | 1956 | 1966 | – | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Horaţiu Nicolau | Romania | 1956 | 1966 | – | 2 | 2 | 4 |
