FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship 2023: Six teams will compete for women’s club world championship honors

The FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship in 2023 will feature six of the top club teams around the world vying for the title of Club World Champion. Again featuring six teams, the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship is scheduled for Hangzhou, China, from December 13–17.

Tianjin Bohai Bank Women’s Volleyball Club is the host team. Other teams competing for the world title include Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul and VakifBank Spor Kulubu, both from Istanbul; they represent Europe; Gerdau Minas of Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Dentil Praia Clube of Uberlandia, South America; and Sport Center I Women’s Club of Hanoi, Vietnam.

Tianjin Bohai Bank, the reigning Chinese national champions, will host the tournament for the third time and will be led by Melissa Vargas of Türkiye, who is arguably the most successful player in the world in 2023 so far, as well as some of the best international players in China. They took part in both 2012 and 2019. Although Tianjin won the competition for the first time four years ago, they have yet to advance past the pool stage.

The two most decorated clubs in the history of the Women’s Club World Championships are VakifBank and Eczacibasi.

As of right now, VakifBank has eight podium finishes and four world titles (2013, 2017, 2018, and 2021). This means that they have medaled in every tournament they have participated in since 2016. They made it to the final last year, but they had to settle for silver after losing to Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano of Italy. After that, they won the CEV Champions League, which gave them the opportunity to play for their fifth club world title in December.

Eczacibasi, the runners-up in the 2023 CEV Champions League, earned a spot in their seventh Club World Championship. They hosted the world’s top club competition in Antalya in 2022, and they took home the bronze medal—their fifth medal overall—on the podium. The two consecutive titles the Istanbul powerhouse won in 2015 and 2016 are included in that total.

As finalists in the 2023 South American Women’s Club Championship, Dentil Praia and Minas secured their places at the Club World Championship. The Belo Horizonte team had to settle for silver, while the Uberlandia team emerged victorious as continental champions.

After competing together in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022, the two Brazilian clubs are making their fifth consecutive trip to the Club World Champions (the tournament was canceled in 2020). Minas achieved their second podium finish at the Club World Championship in 2018, taking second place in 1992 when they made their competition debut and placed second. Dentil Praia’s best result to date is a fourth place in 2018, and they are still chasing their first podium.

A Vietnamese team achieved the distinction of being eligible to compete in the women’s Club World Championship for the first time in history. The first team from their nation to win the Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship and earn a spot in the international tournament was Sport Center I Women’s Club in 2023.

The Preliminary Round format features:

• Six teams
• Two pools of three teams each
• Three competition days
• Two matches per team
• Six matches in total in the Preliminary Round

At the conclusion of the preliminary round, the top two teams from each pool, determined by the Teams Ranking System, move on to the semifinals.

The format of the semifinals will be as follows:

The top-ranked team in Pool A will square off against the second-ranked team in Pool B in the semifinals, and the top-ranked team in Pool B will square off against the second-ranked team in Pool A.

Finals:

The winners of the semifinals will compete for the title of Club World Championship, while the runners-up will contend for third place.