Tampere has yet another prestigious competition: Finland will host the men’s EC preliminary group of volleyball | Sport

Finland received the opening group of the 2026 European Men’s Volleyball Championship to organize. The women’s national team, on the other hand, was drawn into a really tough EC qualifying group.

Tampere is strengthening its position as a prestigious competition city for ball sports. The Volleyball Association announced that Tampere will host one preliminary group of the men’s EC volleyball in the fall of 2026. So six teams will play in Tampere from the 11th to the 17th. September 2026.

The continent’s best volleyball will once again be seen in Finland, because the last time Tampere played the opening group of the EC was in 2021.

In ice hockey, Tampere has organized the men’s WC tournament twice in recent years. Next year, Tampere will host the men’s EC basketball championship, and in 2026, the men’s floorball WC final tournament.

– Getting the group stage of the European Volleyball Championships to Finland and Tampere is a tough deal. It is an honor for the city to host prestigious competitions in an internationally respected sport. I welcome all Finnish and international fans to Tampere to enjoy the experiences of the sports city, rejoices the mayor of Tampere Kalervo Kummola.

– We are in a positive direction right now by many measures, and these competitions bring more speed and content to sport marketing. The home games nicely support the just-chosen blue-and-white coaching direction of the men’s national team – now I challenge the whole volleyball family to build a wonderful blue-and-white party together, President of the Volleyball Association Lauri Inna painted.

Director of Sports at the Volleyball Association Tapio Kangasniemi was happy about hosting the competition, especially from the perspective of the players and Finnish fans.

– In my opinion, we have the best fans in Europe, and I am also very satisfied from the fans’ point of view, because often the fans have had to travel long distances to different tournaments, Kangasniemi pointed out.

– For all of Finnish volleyball and its vitality, this is of course a very important issue from many different points of view. We have a great championship streak behind us with the national teams, and it’s wonderful to be able to continue that at home in Tampere.

In the previous EC final tournament 2023, Finland’s men finished 19th after finishing last in their initial group in Varna, Bulgaria, with one win and four losses.

In the past, the men’s European Championships have also been played in Finland in 1977 and 1993. At the same time, Finland’s men secured their tenth consecutive place in the European Championship finals even without qualifying. In total, the men are now participating in the EC final tournament for the 21st time, with the best ranking being fourth in 2007.

A challenging qualifying block for women

The European Volleyball Federation CEV also published the men’s and women’s qualifying groups and their programs. In both sexes, seven qualifying groups of three teams will be played, from which the winners and the five best second-placed teams will reach the 2026 EC final tournaments.

The women’s national team will start their quest for a place in the EC final tournament with the qualifiers, which will be played during the years 2024–2025. Finland’s opponents are Germany and Switzerland.

The women’s national team has participated in three previous European Championships. Each time, the races have ended in the first block.

Germany is sixth in the European ranking, but had to qualify due to the poorly passed 2023 European Championship.

Switzerland’s European ranking, on the other hand, is 26th, i.e. it is one place ahead of Finland.

– The group is very interesting and offers us four games against very high level opponents. At the same time, of course, the challenge of surviving this group to the EC final tournament is really big, added the head coach of the women’s national team Nicholas Buser.

– When you look at the group division as a whole, you could say that we were unlucky as the group was the hardest of all. In many groups, there is one clearly weaker team, which creates comfortable positions for collecting six series points for the other teams in the group. In practice, we probably need to collect at least seven points out of the 12 in the division.

In the women’s category, the eight best teams from the 2023 European Championship and the four tournament hosts get a direct place in the 2026 European Championship finals. Sweden, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan and Turkey have already been announced as tournament organizers.

Serbia, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, France, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Slovakia have secured a direct place in the competition with their success in the previous competitions.