From European League winners to EuroVolley contenders: Finland are dreaming bigger

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It is tempting to look at Finland’s extraordinary victory over Italy in Turin as the moment when everything changed. The packed PalaVela, the reigning world champions pushed to the limit on home soil, the 8–11 deficit in the deciding set and the final Finnish comeback from 12–12 to 15–13 made for one of the defining scenes of EuroVolley 2026.

But the truth is rather different.

Finland did not suddenly appear among Europe’s elite in Turin.
The 3–2 victory over Italy was the culmination of a progression that had already been gathering speed for several seasons. The European League titles, the qualification for the Volleyball Nations League, the steady rise in the FIVB World Ranking and the emergence of a young generation around Joonas Jokela and brothers Luka and Nooa Marttila had all pointed in the same direction.

EuroVolley has simply accelerated everything.

Finland arrived in the tournament ranked 16th in the world. They will leave it among Europe’s final four, having eliminated Italy and climbed to 12th in the world rankings. They have also secured a place at the 2027 World Championship in Poland and will play in the 2027 VNL.
The European League was where the latest chapter began. After winning the European Golden League in 2025, Finland went one step further in 2026, completing a perfect campaign with ten victories in ten matches and successfully defending their title.
The final against the Netherlands carried considerably more weight than a trophy alone. The two teams were fighting not only for the European League crown but also for a place in the 2027 VNL. Finland entered the finals ranked 17th in the world with 207.37 points, narrowly ahead of the Netherlands in 18th with 205.61.
CEV confirmed that the outcome of the two-match final would determine which of the two teams earned promotion to the Nations League.
Finland settled the question on the court. They defeated the Netherlands 3–1 in both matches, first in Nokia and then in The Hague, completing an unbeaten European League campaign and earning their place in the 2027 VNL.
The second victory also secured Finland’s second consecutive title in the competition.
Luka Marttila was named MVP of the finals after leading his team with another 22-point performance in The Hague.

There was, however, an unexpected complication.
Russia’s return to the VNL for 2027 meant that the competition’s format had to be adjusted. Rather than removing a place that Finland had earned on the court, the FIVB expanded the men’s field for 2027 to 19 teams, allowing Finland to retain the position they had secured through the European League.
That decision matters because the VNL will give this Finnish generation something it has rarely had: a sustained schedule of official matches against the world’s strongest national teams. And with the FIVB World Ranking playing a significant role in the final stages of the road to Los Angeles, those matches will carry importance well beyond the 2027 season.

The faces of Finland’s rise are becoming increasingly familiar.

Joonas Jokela has emerged as one of the country’s most important offensive weapons, while Luka and Nooa Marttila have become perhaps the most recognisable symbols of the new generation. Luka is 23, Nooa 21, and both are outside hitters who have progressed through the national-team system together.
Their story has an added layer because Finland’s national team is traditionally known as Veljekset, meaning “The Brothers”. With Luka and Nooa now playing side by side at senior level, the nickname has acquired an unusually literal meaning.
But the Marttila brothers are far more than a good storyline.
They are already central figures in Finland’s results.
Against Greece in the round of 16, the two brothers combined with Jokela to help Finland survive another five-set battle and reach the quarterfinals.
Then came Italy. Jokela produced 28 points, Luka Marttila added 22, and the two were at the centre of the comeback that stunned the home crowd.

The victory also completed another remarkable transformation in the Finnish campaign.

Italy led 11–8 in the tie-break. Finland won 15–13.

That single sequence encapsulated the character of the team: technically strong, increasingly accustomed to pressure and, perhaps most importantly, no longer intimidated by the names on the other side of the net.

The reward was not merely a semifinal place.

By reaching the last four, Finland also secured qualification for the 2027 World Championship.
Poland are already guaranteed a place as hosts, leaving the three remaining European World Championship berths for the other EuroVolley semifinalists: Finland, France and Slovenia.

In the space of a few months, Finland have therefore secured two major pieces of the next Olympic cycle: a place in the 2027 VNL and a ticket to the 2027 World Championship.

And that is where the conversation inevitably turns towards Los Angeles.

The LA28 qualification system gives men’s national teams three relevant routes beyond the host United States: five continental champions will qualify from the 2026 continental championships, three places will be awarded at the 2027 World Championship to the highest-ranked teams not already qualified, and the final three places will come from the FIVB World Ranking at the end of the 2028 VNL preliminary phase.

Finland are already involved in two of those pathways.

They are still alive at EuroVolley, where the European champion will receive Europe’s direct Olympic quota. And they have already qualified for the 2027 World Championship, giving them another opportunity to fight for an Olympic place next year.

Should neither route produce qualification, the world ranking remains a final avenue in 2028. That makes Finland’s current rise particularly significant. Moving from 17th in the world during the European League final, to 16th before EuroVolley and now 12th after eliminating Italy is not simply a statistical curiosity. It puts them considerably closer to the group of teams competing for the final Olympic places.

There is also something fascinating about the composition of the four teams now remaining in Milan. Poland are world No. 1, Slovenia No. 6, France No. 8 and Finland No. 12. Finland are the lowest-ranked team of the four, but that ranking no longer looks like a barrier. Their next opponent is France, and a potential final would bring either Poland or Slovenia.

Those are precisely the matches a team needs if it wants to discover where it really belongs.

The remarkable thing about Finland’s story is therefore not that they defeated Italy.

It is that the victory no longer feels completely inexplicable.

A team that won the European League twice in succession, completed the 2026 edition with ten victories from ten matches, earned its VNL place directly on the court, developed a new generation around Jokela and the Marttila brothers, climbed steadily through the world rankings and then reached the EuroVolley semifinals has built something much more substantial than a one-night sensation.

Turin merely gave the rest of Europe a very clear view of it.

Finland now have a European League title, a VNL place, a World Championship ticket and a EuroVolley semifinal waiting in Milan. On Friday night, France will stand between them and their first European Championship final.

And beyond Milan, there is another destination that suddenly does not look quite so distant.

Los Angeles.

The journey is still long, and qualification is far from guaranteed. But Finland have already moved from being a team dreaming about the world’s elite to one that is beginning to play against them — and beat them.