Milan starts the countdown to EuroVolley 2026’s decisive battles

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The countdown to the decisive stages of the 2026 Men’s European Volleyball Championship is about to begin in the heart of Milan.
On Thursday, September 3, at 3:30 p.m. local time, a special countdown clock will be unveiled in the iconic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, marking the final approach to the most important matches of EuroVolley 2026.
The ceremony will bring the European Championship into one of Milan’s most recognisable landmarks and will officially launch the countdown to the tournament’s final phase in Italy. The event will be attended by FIPAV President Giuseppe Manfredi, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, Lombardy Region President Attilio Fontana and CONI Lombardy President Marco Riva.
Also joining the ceremony will be FIPAV Ambassador Matteo Piano, the former Italian international who won an Olympic silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Milan will host the climax of the championship at the Unipol Forum in Assago.
The two semifinals are scheduled for Friday, September 25, while the bronze-medal match and the final will follow on Saturday, September 26, when the new European champions will be crowned.
For the four teams that reach Milan, the journey will therefore culminate in two decisive days in Assago, with the European title and medals at stake.
But the road to Milan begins much earlier — and one of its most important stops will be Sofia.
Just one day after the Milan ceremony, on Friday, September 4, the Bulgarian capital will unveil its own EuroVolley countdown clock in Sveta Nedelya Square.
The centrepiece will be a large volleyball featuring a clock counting down to the start of the championship.
Sofia will play a major role in the early and knockout stages of the tournament, hosting Pool B, as well as four round-of-16 matches and two quarter-finals. The Bulgarian capital will therefore be one of the key venues in determining which teams eventually travel to Italy for the final weekend.
The Pool B action in Sofia will feature Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Poland, Ukraine, Portugal and Israel, with the teams battling for four places in the round of 16.
The tournament will then progressively narrow the field through the knockout stages before the remaining contenders make their way to Italy for the final weekend.

The contrast between the two countdown ceremonies is fitting: Sofia will mark the beginning of the championship journey and the battle to survive the early rounds, while Milan will represent the destination for those still dreaming of European gold.
With the clocks being unveiled only 24 hours apart, both cities will symbolically start counting down to the same destination — September 26, when the final of EuroVolley 2026 will be played at the Unipol Forum and a new European champion will be crowned.

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