Volleyball Calendar 2025-2028 Launched: The Best Ever

All key volleyball stakeholders were consulted throughout a year-and-a-half-long process of creating the new volleyball calendar.

The FIVB has officially launched the comprehensive Volleyball Calendar 2025-2028, implementing the concept of ‘less is more’ while marking the first time the calendar has been released this far before the upcoming Olympic cycle to facilitate enhanced athlete and team preparation.

The new calendar has been developed in close consultation over the past year and a half with all key stakeholders, including athletes, coaches, Continental Confederations, National Federations, major national leagues, essential media rights holders, and commercial partners.

While enhancing the importance and value of the club season, the Volleyball Calendar 2025-2028 prioritizes key international events like the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), biennial World Championships, and Continental Championships. In addition, the qualification pathways have been streamlined by using existing circumstances and the World Rankings to qualify for the World Championships and the Olympic Games.

The calendar features a simplified schedule with a 25 percent reduction in major international events compared to the Tokyo 2020 cycle.

Protecting athlete health and well-being is also at the heart of the new volleyball calendar, with 50 percent of the international season now dedicated to team recovery and preparation.

Notably, the 2025-2028 calendar will see an increase of weeks for players’ recovery and preparation compared with the Paris 2024 cycle, for 11.5 weeks per year, while the Olympic year of 2028 will see an extended recovery period of 13 weeks.

The optimization of the calendar also includes consistent dates for flagship events and simplified tournament formats to facilitate teams’ preparation planning while making it easier for fans to follow all the action.

FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° commented:

“In my over 60 years in volleyball as a national team player, National Federation President, Continental Confederation President, and the FIVB President, this is the best volleyball calendar ever released. This sentiment is echoed by the feedback we received from our extensive consultations with the sport’s major stakeholders.

“Through optimizing the calendar, we expect the best athletes and teams to be part of all the significant events. In addition, with the World Championships now being held every two years with the participation of 32 teams per gender, we are confident that more countries than ever can host and participate in this prestigious tournament.