Stage Set For New CEV Champions League Volley Season

As the anticipation grows ahead of a new season of CEV Champions League Volley action, there is a swell of excitement building across Europe.

Italian and Polish teams have dominated the Champions League over the course of the last few years, winning each of the last five editions of the biggest tournament in European volleyball.

In that time, three teams have lifted the trophy, but this season, none of those teams will feature in the competition, throwing the doors wide open for a new team to step in and stamp their name in the history books.

Last year’s Italian champions were Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, who lifted their first domestic title since 2018. After finishing second in the league standings, behind last season’s Champions League winners Trentino Itas, Perugia were in fine form during the play-offs and defeated Vero Volley Monza in the final.

Allianz Milano, the third Italian team, were the sixth seeds entering last season’s play-offs, but booked their Champions League spot with a 3-1 win over Trentino in the third-place play-off.

All three Italian sides are different to the nation’s representatives in last season’s Champions League, but will be looking to make it back-to-back titles for Italy.

The Polish PlusLiga has been one of the most competitive leagues in Europe over the course of the last few years. Polish sides won three Champions League titles in a row from 2021-2023, but the teams representing Poland in this season’s competition have a slightly different look to them.

The one constant is Jastrzębski Węgiel, who have finished as runners-up in each of the last two seasons. Jastrzębski have won three of the last four PlusLiga titles, dominating the competition. After finishing atop the standings after the league phase, Jastrzębski dominated the competition in the play-offs, defeating Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie in the final.

PGE Projekt Warszawa join their compatriots, meaning the Top 3 in the standings at the end of the league phase finished as the Top 3 after the play-offs. Zawiercie and Warszawa are relatively new to the Champions League, with not a lot of experience in Europe’s elite competition. However, any team that can finish at the top of the PlusLiga standings, will likely be a force to be reckoned with in the Champions League.

Germany’s Bundesliga are the final team in this season’s competition to have three teams featured. And one team has dominated the Bundesliga in recent times. Berlin Recycling Volleys have won 11 of the last 12 Bundesliga titles.

Joining Berlin in the Champions League for this season are Helios Grizzlys Giesen and SVG Luneburg after Giesen and Luneburg finished in the Top 4 of their league standings.

Berlin and Giesen have won Champions League titles in the past, and German teams have fared well in the competition in recent years, regularly featuring in the quarterfinals.

Turkey, Belgium and France have all got two representatives in the Champions League, and these nations have more to achieve in the pinnacle of European volleyball.

Knack Roeselare of Belgium, Halkbank Ankara from Turkey and French side Saint Nazaire VB Atlantique all come into the new Chmapions League season as domestic champions. This is a familiar position for Roeselare, who have won each of the last four Belgian titles.

Halkbank, however, lifted the Turkish title for the first time since 2018, but the big story of the title winners came from France, where Saint Nazaire won the Ligue A title for the first time in their history, after only a couple of seasons in France’s top flight.

Five other nations are represented in this season’s Champions League, with the league champions from Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovenia, Austria and Greece all successfully making it into the Pool phase.

Olympiacos Piraeus are, historically, Champions League stalwarts and have won five of the last seven Greek titles. That hasn’t always translated to a spot in the Champions League proper, but they have made it back-to-back years in the Pool phase, though you have to journey back to 2010 for the last time they advanced any further than the pools.

Levski Sofia have not had much recent success domestically or on the European stage, and have reached the Champions League Pool phase for the first time since 2007. They will be looking to advance from the pools for the first time this millennium.

After a few seasons of being knocked off the top perch in Czechia, Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice are back on top, coming into this new season as domestic champions for the first time since 2019. They have not seen much success on the continental stage, but will be full of confidence after reclaiming their domestic title.

ACH Volley Ljubljana might well be the most dominant domestic side in the Champions League, winning 15 of the last 16 Slovenian league titles. They have a good record of making it through to the main competition, but have not troubled the knockouts since 2013.

Finally, Austria’s Hypo Tirol Innsbruck have won back-to-back domestic titles for the first time since they won four in a row from 2014-2017. Similarly to some of the other nations who only boast one team in the competition, they have not reached the knockout stage for some time. However, in 2010 they reached the latter stages, only falling in the Playoff 6 phase.

With so many teams becoming reacquainted, and some meeting for the very first time this season, we cannot wait for another year of Champions League action to begin.