The 2026 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League was the eighth edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League, an annual men's international volleyball tournament. It took place from 10 June to 2 August 2026, with the final round held at the Beilun Gymnasium in Ningbo, China.
Following the results of the 2025 Nations League, the Netherlands were relegated and replaced by Belgium as the highest-ranked non-VNL team in the FIVB World Rankings.
Poland claimed their second consecutive and third overall VNL title by defeating the United States 3–2 in the final match. With the victory, Poland extended their streak of podium finishes in the tournament. In the third-place match, Slovenia defeated Japan 3–1 to secure the bronze medal, marking their first-ever podium finish in the history of the competition. Tomasz Fornal of Poland was awarded the tournament's MVP title.
Host selection In January 2026, the FIVB announced China as the host for the Men's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Finals. Ningbo was selected to stage the event for the second consecutive year, following its successful hosting of the 2025 edition.
Teams Qualification The tournament features 18 national teams. Following the 2025 season, the Netherlands were excluded after finishing last among the teams and replaced by Belgium, who earned the right as the highest-ranked non-VNL team in the FIVB World Rankings.
+List of 2026 VNL participating teamsCountryConfederationPrevious appearancesBest performanceTotalFirstLastCSV7201820255th place (2023)CEV0DebutCSV720182025Champions (2021)CEV72018202511th place (2018, 2025)NORCECA7201820256th place (2024)AVC5201820258th place (2025)NORCECA3202320257th place (2025)CEV720182025Champions (2022, 2024)CEV7201820259th place (2018)AVC7201820255th place (2019)CEV720182025Runners-up (2025)AVC720182025Runners-up (2024)CEV720182025Champions (2023, 2025)CEV7201820255th place (2018)CEV5202120254th place (2021, 2024, 2025)CEV22024202516th place (2024)CEV1202510th place (2025)NORCECA720182025Runners-up (2019, 2022, 2023)
Squads
Each participating national team submitted a final 30-player roster published via the VNL competition website. For each competition week of the tournament, teams select a match-day lineup consisting of 12 to 14 players from their registered 30-player squad.
Format Preliminary round The format of play is generally the same as in the 2022 edition. Each week, six teams will compete during the pool phase. Each team plays 12 matches during the pool stage. During three weeks, each team plays four times in a table that is set up by an algorithm, with all teams playing 12 times in total at the end of the first phase. The eight best teams advance to the quarter-finals, while the last-placed team loses its place to the highest FIVB-ranked team that did not compete this year. The only country that has already qualified for this phase is China for hosting the finals and if it does not finish the first phase among the top eight, the top seven will qualify with the Chinese team being ranked 8th.
Final round The VNL Finals will see the top eight teams moving directly to the knockout phase, which will consist of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals, and the bronze and gold medal matches.
Final 8 direct elimination formula: The first ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the eighth ranked team, the second ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the seventh ranked team, the third ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the sixth ranked team, and the fourth ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the fifth ranked team. The national team of the hosting territory of the event will have a guaranteed berth for the Final round. If the host nation team do not finish in the top eight in the Preliminary round, they will replace the eighth place team and play as the eighth seed.
Pool composition The overview of pools was released on 28 January 2026.
Week 1Pool 1CanadaPool 2BrazilPool 3ChinaWeek 2Pool 4FrancePool 5PolandPool 6SloveniaWeek 3Pool 7SerbiaPool 8United StatesPool 9Japan
Venues Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1Pool 2Pool 3Ottawa, CanadaBrasília, BrazilLinyi, ChinaTD Place ArenaNilson Nelson GymnasiumLinyi Olympic Sports Park GymnasiumCapacity: 9,500Capacity: 11,105Capacity: 12,800Week 2Pool 4Pool 5Pool 6Orléans, FranceGliwice, PolandLjubljana, SloveniaCO'Met ArenaGliwice ArenaArena StožiceCapacity: 10,000Capacity: 13,572Capacity: 12,480Week 3Pool 7Pool 8Pool 9Belgrade, SerbiaHoffman Estates, United StatesOsaka, JapanBelgrade ArenaNow ArenaAsue Arena OsakaCapacity: 18,386Capacity: 10,543Capacity: 10,000
Final round All matchesNingbo, ChinaBeilun GymnasiumCapacity: 8,000
Competition schedule ●Preliminary round●Final round
Week 110–14 JunWeek 224–28 JunWeek 315–19 JulWeek 429 Jul – 2 Aug36 matches36 matches36 matches8 matches
Pool standing procedure Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply, with the teams ranked by the most points gained per match as follows: Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost. Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match between the tied teams during the Round Robin Phase. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams will be ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
Preliminary round Ranking
Week 1 Pool 1 All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).
Pool 2 All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).
Pool 3 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Week 2 Pool 4 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 5 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 6 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Week 3 Pool 7 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 8 All times are Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00).
Pool 9 All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
Final round All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam456789101112131415161718
14–man rosterJakub Popiwczak, Marcin Komenda, Bartłomiej Lemański, Wilfredo León, Aleksander Śliwka (c), Artur Szalpuk, Kamil Semeniuk, Maksymilian Granieczny, Tomasz Fornal, Bartłomiej Bołądź, Szymon Jakubiszak, Kewin Sasak, , Jan FirlejHead coach Nikola Grbić
Awards According to the competition regulations, individual prize money totaling $100,000 would be awarded. A total of $70,000 was distributed among the statistical leaders of the preliminary phase ($10,000 per category), while a $30,000 prize will be allocated for the MVP, selected from the gold medal match participants via a combined voting process between fans and designated volleyball experts.
Bulgaria's Aleksandar Nikolov was the only player selected in two statistical categories, leading both total points scored and total attack points. Canada, Ukraine, and Argentina each earned their first individual VNL preliminary awards through Jackson Howe, Dmytro Yanchuk, and Franco Massimino, respectively.
Most valuable player Tomasz Fornal Best scorer Aleksandar Nikolov Best attacker Aleksandar Nikolov Best blocker Jackson Howe Best server
Best setter Antoine Brizard Best digger Franco Massimino Best receiver
Statistics leaders Preliminary round Statistics leaders correct at the end of preliminary round.
Best ScorersPlayerAttacksBlocksServesTotal1 Aleksandar Nikolov24711202782 Ferre Reggers2469132683 Nik Mujanović19615162274 Adis Lagumdžija17724182195 Ran Takahashi1721521208
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Aleksandar Nikolov2477713453.934582 Ferre Reggers2469215949.504973 Nik Mujanović1965313051.723794 Adis Lagumdžija1775016145.623885 Ran Takahashi1724811052.12330
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Jackson Howe4570751902 3847451303 Bartłomiej Lemański282936934 Yurii Semeniuk2844611335 Aleks Grozdanov274849124
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 213510113.38157 Ran Takahashi212714510.881933 Aleksandar Nikolov204911510.871844 Adis Lagumdžija184110910.711685 Simeon Nikolov17481358.50200 Asparuh Asparuhov173811210.18167 Darlan Souza17515813.49126
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Antoine Brizard39655759762 Fernando Kreling39084368343 Uroš Planinšič36244868524 Arshia Behnezhad324667210025 Murat Yenipazar3162616934
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Franco Massimino11243482032 9738381733 Gorik Lantsoght9145381744 Stefan Negić8837381635 842831143
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 93112293332 Berkay Bayraktar74121932793 Mohammad Reza Hazratpour6761682414 Yonder García66111382155 Matt Anderson6113161235
Final round Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.
Best ScorersPlayerSpikesBlocksServesTotal1 Jake Hanes51312662 Matt Anderson5135593 Rok Možič5302554 Ran Takahashi4923545 Nik Mujanović 406450
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Rok Možič531630992 Matt Anderson5173088 Jake Hanes511621884 Ran Takahashi4913431055 Nik Mujanović 401743100 Bartłomiej Bołądź4082876
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Bartłomiej Lemański10811292 Bartłomiej Bołądź8416283 Merrick MacHenry71419404 Larry Ik Evbade-Dan6101935 Sašo Štalekar6101127 Nik Mujanović631726
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Jake Hanes121729582 Wilfredo León101624503 Tomasz Fornal71327474 Matt Anderson51127435 Nik Mujanović4102943
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Micah Christenson10201632652 Uroš Planinšič9221802743 Hideomi Fukatsu8601802664 Marcin Komenda6301562195 Wang Hebin3405589
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Grega Okroglič28141153 Jakub Popiwczak28108463 Ran Takahashi279440 Erik Shoji27128475 Marcin Komenda2610642
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Matt Anderson16364832 Ran Takahashi14137523 Rok Možič13348644 Tine Urnaut1263654 Tomasz Fornal1213548
See also 2026 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League 2026 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U17 World Championship
Notes
References
External links