Uberlandia (Brazil), 09 December 2024

Fivb Club World Championship, the 2024 edition starts in Uberlândia

It starts on Tuesday, 10th December the 2024 Club World Cup edition, which will take place entirely in Uberlândia, Brazil. Trentino Volley (throughout the entire event with the official denomination of Trentino Itas) will be the protagonist for the eleventh time in its history of the world champion competition, included in Pool B (group stage). The gialloblù team will play the three matches of the first phase in quick succession: on Tuesday 10th December (at 2 pm Italian time against the Iranians of Shahdab Yazd), on Wednesday 11th December (at 5.30 pm against the Argentinians of Ciudad Volley) and on Friday 13th December (at 00:30 am against the Brazilians of Sada Cruzeiro). The matches will all be broadcast live streaming on the OTT platforms DAZN and VBTV.
THE COURSE OF THE EVENT The eight participating teams representing four of the five continents of the world (only Oceania will be missing) will be divided in the first phase into two groups (Pool A and Pool B) of four teams each. They will face each other from 10 to 13 December in a Round Robin (known as a one-way Italian round) for a total of 12 matches. The first two of each group of the first phase will enter the semifinals (scheduled for the 14th December, the finals will be played on 15th December). The third and fourth placed teams will be eliminated directly.
The awarding of points in the ranking is the same used in the Italian championship: three points for victory in a maximum of four sets, two points for success at tie break and one point for defeat in the fifth set, but the first discriminating factor will be the number of victories. If two teams have the same number of successes in the final classification of the round, the following will therefore be taken into account in order: number of points, set quotient, points quotient, direct clash.
THE COMPLETE DETAILED PROGRAMME The time of the matches are scheduled in CET (Central European Time), which is the Italian time zone.
Tuesday, 10th December 2024:
-    at 2 pm CET Trentino Itas-Shahdab Yazd
-    at 5:30 pm CET Foolad Sirjan Iranian - Cucine Lube Civitanova
-    at 9 pm CET Praia Clube-Al Ahly Sc
Wednesday, 11th December 2024:
-    at 00:30 am CET Sada Cruzeiro-Ciudad Voley
-    at 2 pm CET Foolad Sirjan Iranian-Al Ahly Sc
-    at 5:30 pm CET Trentino Itas-Ciudad Voley,
-    at 9 pm CET Praia Clube-Cucine Lube Civitanova
Thursday, 12th December 2024:
-    at 00:30 am CET Sada Cruzeiro-Shahdab Yazd
-    at 9 pm CET Praia Clube-Foolad Sirjan
Friday, 13th December 2024:
-    at 00:30 am CET Trentino Itas-Sada Cruzeiro,
-    at 9 pm CET Ciudad Voley-Shahdab Yazd.
Saturday, 14th December 2024:
-    at 00:30 am CET Cucine Lube Civitanova-Al Ahly Sc
-    at 5:30 pm CET first Semi-final
-    at 9 pm CET second Semi-final
Sunday, 15th December 2024:
-    at 3 pm CET 15 Final for third place
-    at 6:30 pm CET Super Final
HERE TRENTINO ITAS The gialloblù team comes to the appointment wearing the ranks of European Champion in charge, but has to do without Kozamernik, an essential player, out due to a cervical disc herniation that forced him to stay in Trento. After traveling for thirty hours between Saturday and Sunday to reach South America, Sbertoli and his teammates will immediately take the court and will have to prove that they have overcome the fatigue of the long trip.
"This Club World Cup is so meaningful for this group, which takes part in it after winning the Champions League - underlined the coach Fabio Soli - . We will be without an important athlete like Kozamernik, but we still have the qualities to play our cards right until the end, especially if we can put the best version of ourselves on the court, as individuals and as a team. Three matches await us that, for various reasons, are challenging, full of pitfalls and very different from each other; the debut against the Iranian team will be a good testbed because it will take place a few hours before our arrival in Brazil and against players who are used to experiencing important events with the jersey of their national team and who have both quality and physicality. Whereas against Ciudad, it will be necessary to keep the exuberance of many young athletes and their understandable desire to subvert the predictions under control, while the match against Sada is objectively the most difficult. It is a great team, with many important players, who traditionally have always done very well in this event when they have played in their own country".
In the previous ten participations in the Club World Cup, the debut was positive in nine cases for Trentino Volley, capable of winning all the opening matches of this event, except that of the 2014 edition (0-3 defeat against Al-Rayan): the favorable precedents are related to the 3-1 against Zamalek in the 2009 edition, 3-0 against Dinamo Moscow in the 2010 edition, 3-0 against Al Ahly in 2011, 3-2 against Al-Rayyan in 2012, 3-1 against Kalleh in 2013, 3-0 against Minas Tenis Clube in 2016, 3-0 against Ardakan in 2018, 3-0 against Foolad in 2021 and 3-1 against Paykan in 2022. It will be the third Club World Cup in the career of the Azzurri players Sbertoli, Lavia and Michieletto (the previous ones in 2021 and 2022), while the central player Flavio is the only one on the court at Uberlandia who will be able to defend the title won in the previous two editions with Perugia.
THE HISTORY OF TRENTINO VOLLEY INTO INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS The one that opens on Thursday in Brazil is the eleventh overall adventure in the World Club Championship for Trentino Volleyball, which can already boast five achievements (the one obtained on November 8, 2009, that of December 21, 2010, that of October 14, 2011, that of October 19, 2012 - all in Doha - and that of December 2, 2018 in Czestochowa), a second place (Betim 2022, last previous presence) and three third places (all in Betim: 2013, 2016 and 2021) with an enviable course, composed of thirty-nine wins in forty-six matches played. Only in the 2014 edition (closed in fifth place) did Trent fail to reach the podium. The 2024 Club World Cup will be the twenty-sixth international event in the history of the yellow-blue club: this total includes thirteen participations in the Champions League (which they won four times), the double European experience of the 2004/05 season, first in the Top Teams Cup and then in the CEV Cup, as well as those in 2015, 2017 (second place behind Moscow and Tours), 2019 (final victory), and 2025 (ongoing) also in the CEV Cup. In total, Trentino Volley has played 223 matches in international competitions, winning 180 and losing 43. Out of 141 matches played outside national borders, they suffered defeat only thirty-one times.
FIRST OPPONENT - Shahdab Yazd (Iran - December 10, 2 PM): team from the city of Yazd (in the center of the country, with over 420,000 inhabitants), is participating in the Club World Cup for the first time in its history thanks to the overall second place achieved at the 2024 Asian Championship held at home in early September. Only their compatriots Foolad Sirjan managed to surpass them, winning the final in a tie-break. The club, founded in 1993, has two national titles (won in the 2022/23 and 2021/22 seasons) and also a bronze medal in the continental tournament played in 2022. The roster, coached by Rahman Mohammadirad (who was previously at Foolad Sirjan in 2022), includes some prominent names in Iranian volleyball, such as opposite Amir Ghafour and middle blocker Masoud Gholami, both part of the national team, along with Cuban outside hitter Concepion and Brazilian setter Lamournier “Paulinho.”
SECOND OPPONENT - Ciudad Voley (Argentina - December 11, 5:30 PM): Registered for the Club World Cup for the first time in its history thanks to the second place achieved in the 2024 South American Championship (defeated in the final by Brazil's Sada Cruzeiro), the Buenos Aires club will represent Argentina in the tournament, backed by recent victories at home, where they have claimed the last five titles: two national championships, two domestic cups, and one super cup (their most recent success). Despite having a century-long tradition (the club was founded in 1920), it only reached the top division in 2015, continuing its rapid ascent to the upper echelons of Argentine volleyball. The roster, coached by Hernan Ferraro (who was previously the coach of the Women's National Team from 2019 to 2022), consists solely of local players, some of whom are part of the national team, including setter Gonzalez (formerly with Bolivar, Halkbank, and UPCN), hitters Lazo (formerly with Montpellier and Renata) and Zelayeta, young libero Albrecht, and middle blocker Soria, who has already played in Europe with Lausanne.
THIRD OPPONENT - Sada Cruzeiro (Brazil - December 13, 12:30 AM): As has often been the case in recent years, they are one of the two Brazilian teams that can host the annual edition of the world tournament in their home country, being based in Belo Horizonte (a metropolis in southeastern Brazil, located five hundred kilometers from Uberlandia). They have once again secured a spot in the Club World Cup by winning the 2024 continental title (their tenth overall and eighth consecutive), with a final victory of 3-0 against Argentina's Ciudad Volley (who are also in Pool B). After Trentino Volley (which they have faced five times, winning only once: on December 9, 2021, by 3-0 in the last match of the group stage; the four losses were from two matches in Doha in 2012, one in Rzeszow in 2018, and one in Betim in 2022), Sada Cruzeiro is the club that has appeared most frequently on the winners' list of this event: four times, thanks to victories in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2021. Their trophy cabinet also includes eight Brazilian titles and eight Brazilian cups, as well as two silver medals (2012 and 2019) and two bronze medals (2017 and 2024) from world competitions. The team features several renowned names in international volleyball; notably opposite Wallace, a legend of the club and Brazilian volleyball, who is joined by promising player Welinton Oppenkoski (born in 2000). Other notable players include middle blockers Otavio and Saatkamp (formerly of Modena), and outside hitters Rodriguinho and Douglas (formerly of Vibo), all part of the national team. The coach is Filipe Ferraz, who as a player won an impressive 39 titles with Sada and took over the coaching position in 2022 from Mendez (now at Jastrzebski).
THE REFEREES The FIVB has officially announced the list of referees appointed to officiate the matches, although the specific assignments for individual games have not been disclosed. The list includes Argentine Nicolas Casado, Qatari Paulo Luis Beal, Brazilian Angela Grass, American Nathan Mahaven, Dominican Denny Francisco Cespedes Lassi, Peruvian Walter Hugo Vera Mechan, Uruguayan Denis Fabian Carbajal Mozzo, and Puerto Rican Hector Ortiz. The latter four were also designated in the previous edition in which Trentino Volley participated (2022 in Betim).
MEDIA All matches of Trentino Itas will be available on DAZN, a live streaming and on-demand platform accessible on a wide range of internet-connected devices, including Smart TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles. DAZN requires registration; the service is subscription-based.
There will also be live video streaming on the "VBTV" platform; this service is also paid. For more information on accessing it, please visit https://subscribe.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
Online, point-by-point updates will be provided by the FIVB's dedicated website for the event ( https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/club-world-championship-men/schedule/), as well as on www.trentinovolley.it, and updates will also be active on the main yellow-blue social networks ( www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office