South Korea’s men’s volleyball team will return to the world championships for the first time in 11 years.
The field for the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Men’s Volleyball World Championship in September 2025 in the Philippines has been selected. The FIVB has expanded the field from 24 to 32 teams, and the tournament will be held every two years instead of every four. This will take effect from the 2022 tournament and then the 2025 tournament. The South Korean men’s volleyball team is currently ranked 28th in the world 안전한 파워볼사이트 and is on the last train to the World Championship.
The 17-team field includes host Philippines, defending champion Italy, 2023 Asian Championship winner Japan, runner-up Iran, third-ranked Qatar, the top three teams from the South American Championship, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, the top three teams from the North American Championship, USA, Canada and Cuba, Egypt, Algeria and Libya from Africa, and Poland, Slovenia and France from Europe.
The FIVB set Aug. 30 as the start date for this year’s league for each country. In addition to the 17 teams, the remaining 15 teams were selected based on their world ranking as of August 30th. Germany, Serbia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Belgium, Turkiye, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Portugal, Finland, Tunisia, China, Romania, and Chile will be joined by South Korea.
It will be 11 years since the 2014 World Championships. It will be the ninth time in the history of the tournament, following the 1956, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2014 editions.
When Isnaye Ramirez took over as head coach of the Korean men’s volleyball team this year, he initially focused on managing the rankings to qualify for the World Championship. Even before the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup this year, he ran a simulation of ranking points for wins and losses to explain to his players.
In the AVC Challenge Cup, they defeated Indonesia (+1.49 points), Qatar (+1.39 points), and Bahrain (+0.01 points), but lost 2.7 ranking points to Pakistan. They gained back 0.83 points with a win over Kazakhstan and took bronze in the tournament for the second year in a row. In total, they added 1.02 points from the AVC Challenge Cup.
South Korea was wary of China, which was ranked lower than South Korea at the time. However, China hosted the FIVB Challenger Cup in July and won the title, racking up ranking points. They are currently ranked 25th in the world.
With China overtaking them in the rankings, South Korea’s chances of qualifying for the World Championship seemed to be in doubt. Ramirez remained hopeful. At the time, he said, “The FIVB hasn’t made an official announcement yet, so the team hasn’t been finalized. Our priority is to try to qualify for major international tournaments like the World Championship in the future. Time passes quickly and I want to be at the center of this important and special moment for Korean volleyball and be with the team.”
Coincidentally, Croatia lost to Israel and Estonia at the European Championships 2026 (EuroBali) qualifiers in August, dropping 5.21 and 5.25 points respectively. They dropped to 29th in the world rankings. As a result, 28th-ranked South Korea, with 138.48 total ranking points, edged out Croatia (136.4) to claim the last World Championship ticket.