Iran ready for 2026 FIVB U17 World Championship, coach says

TEHRAN – Head coach Arash Sadeghiani has expressed confidence in Iran’s readiness for the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship, where the young Persians will compete in Pool E with Brazil, Bulgaria and Japan.

Doha, Qatar will host the second edition of the tournament from Aug. 19 to 29.

“Our team have previously finished as the runners‑up of Asia, won the World School Championship, and also claimed the CAVA title. Now, we’re preparing for the U17 World Championship. Since last year, we divided the players into two A and B groups, and because we know that growth and development in youth categories happens at an extremely fast pace, we invited two roughly 20‑player groups again for new evaluations.,” Sadeghiani said.

“The first stage has just finished, and the second group has now started training. Fortunately, the players’ condition has significantly improved, and we’ve seen remarkable progress. From the top talents of these two groups — alongside our main roster — we will select the final squad. Naturally, there will be some changes, because players develop rapidly at this age. This approach ensures that no talent is overlooked, and we enter the World Championship with a fully prepared team,” he added.

“As part of our preparation path, we took part in the World School Championship and managed to win the title. That tournament was extremely valuable, giving our players crucial international experience. After that, with the support of the Volleyball Federation, we approved a program for our team to participate in the Iran Volleyball Professional League. Despite this category being one level above our players’ age group, we performed very well and the team were put under excellent competitive pressure.

“Additionally, we also entered the second division league, where we played around 12 intense, high‑quality matches in home‑and‑away format. Competing in official matches at these ages is vital, and these games were exactly what we needed. Overall, the competitions we took part in during the second half of the season were perfectly planned to maximize our preparation for the World Championship,” Sadeghiani stated.

“We’ve been drawn into a very tough group, featuring Brazil, Japan, and Bulgaria. That means we have opponents from Asia, Europe, and South America. The 24 qualified teams have been distributed across six pools of four, with defending champions Italy, winners of the inaugural edition in 2024, among the leading teams in the field. The 2026 edition will introduce a revised competition format, with the top two teams in each pool and the four best third-placed teams progressing to the Round of 16 before the competition moves into a knockout phase to determine the medalists. Despite these changes, our full focus is on preparing and sending the strongest possible version of our team,” he concluded.