The 32 teams for Poland 2027 are set: historic returns and new faces at the World Championship

If you wish to publish an Italian translation of this article, any of our other articles, or ANY PART OF THEM, please cite the original source. PLAGIARISM IS ILLEGAL!

The field for the 2027 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship is now complete.

Even before the EuroVolley 2026 final is played, all 32 participants for next year’s tournament in Poland are already known. The final matches in Milan can still affect the world ranking positions of the teams involved, but they can no longer change the composition of the World Championship field.

The reason is the qualification system introduced by FIVB for the new biennial World Championship cycle.
Poland qualified automatically as hosts, while Italy secured its place as the reigning world champions.
The top three eligible teams from each of the five continental championships then received direct berths, with the remaining 15 places allocated according to the FIVB World Ranking at the end of the 2026 national-team season.

That system has produced a particularly interesting European picture.
France, Slovenia and Finland earned the three European continental places by reaching the EuroVolley semi-finals, while Poland were already qualified as hosts. The remaining European nations entered the ranking race, with Bulgaria ultimately sitting at the top of the teams competing for one of those positions.
Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, Türkiye, Serbia, Czechia, Greece, Romania, the Netherlands, Denmark and Estonia also secured their places through the ranking route, alongside Mexico, Puerto Rico and Egypt.

The result is striking: 17 of the 32 teams in Poland will come from Europe, underlining once again the depth of the men’s game across the continent.
For Bulgaria, the qualification comes from a particularly strong ranking position.
The team finished the season ninth in the world with 274.55 points and was therefore the highest-ranked nation without a qualification place already secured through another pathway.
Germany followed at No. 10, Ukraine at No. 11 and Belgium at No. 15.

But Bulgaria’s position is only one part of a much broader story.

Perhaps the most remarkable European return belongs to Denmark.
The Danes will play at the World Championship for only the second time in their history, returning to the competition for the first time since 1966. Their previous appearance, however, came under very different circumstances: Denmark entered the 1966 tournament as a replacement after another team withdrew.
This time there is no such footnote.
Denmark earned its place through the sporting qualification process, making Poland 2027 the country’s first World Championship qualification achieved on the court. The breakthrough comes after several seasons of rapid progress, including a historic run at EuroVolley 2026, where Denmark reached the round of 16 after victories over the Netherlands and Estonia.
Their rise has also been reflected in the world ranking. Denmark had already climbed significantly before EuroVolley and continued to collect valuable ranking points during the tournament, eventually reaching 27th place with 142.74 points — enough for the 13th and final qualifying position among the ranking-based European contenders.

Estonia’s story is different, but equally significant.
The Baltic nation secured the final of the 15 ranking-based World Championship places, entering the tournament at No. 31 in the world with 139.70 points. For Estonia, this represents a historic first: the country will appear at a men’s World Championship as an independent nation.
Estonia became an FIVB member in 1992 following the restoration of its independence. Its volleyball history before that point was intertwined with the Soviet system, but the national team has never previously reached a World Championship finals tournament under the Estonian flag.
Now that wait is over.
The margin at the qualification cut-off was also remarkably tight. Estonia occupied the final qualifying position, while Portugal were the first team outside the field.

Greece will also return to the world’s biggest stage after a long absence. The Greeks last appeared at a men’s World Championship in 2006 in Japan. They subsequently missed the 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2025 editions.
Their 21-year wait will end in Poland.
Greece secured the 25th World Championship place through the ranking route, finishing 21st in the world with 166.64 points. It is another indication of how much the ranking system can change the picture for national teams outside the traditional group of regular World Championship participants.

The complete field is therefore made up of nations qualified through several very different routes.

Poland enter as hosts, while Italy arrive as the reigning world champions. France, Slovenia and Finland earned Europe’s continental berths through their EuroVolley performances. Japan, Iran and the Republic of Korea qualified through Asia; the USA, Canada and Cuba through NORCECA; Brazil, Argentina and Chile through South America; and Tunisia, Cameroon and Algeria through Africa.
The remaining 15 places went to Bulgaria, Germany, Ukraine, Belgium, Türkiye, Serbia, Czechia, Greece, Romania, the Netherlands, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Egypt and Estonia through the world ranking.
Russia, despite its position in the ranking, will not be part of the tournament.
The Russian Volleyball Federation informed FIVB that it would voluntarily not participate in the 2027 World Championship.

The tournament itself will take place in Poland in September 2027, with matches spread across five cities: Gdańsk, Katowice, Łódź, Olsztyn and Kraków. The latter will host the semi-finals and medal matches. It will be the second edition of the men’s World Championship to feature the new 32-team format.

And there is another reason why Poland 2027 already matters beyond the World Championship title.
The tournament will also be part of the race for Los Angeles 2028. Under the Olympic qualification system, the three highest-ranked teams at the 2027 World Championship that have not already qualified for the Olympic Games will receive Olympic berths. The World Championship is therefore not only a battle for a global title, but also one of the most important stages of the Olympic cycle.

The 32-team field now tells a story of its own.
There are the established powers: Poland, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, USA and Japan. There are teams returning after long absences, such as Greece and Denmark. There is Estonia preparing for its first World Championship as an independent country. And there are nations such as Finland, whose extraordinary rise at EuroVolley has turned them from outsiders into one of the teams to watch on the global stage.

By the time the first ball is served in Poland next September, some of these stories will already have developed further.
For now, though, the line-up is complete.
Thirty-two teams. Five continents. One World Championship — and a qualification list that contains several stories that would have been difficult to predict only a few months ago.

__________________

👀|QUICK LINKS
• All International news 🗞️
• Multimedia
• Facebook
• Instagram

__________________