Bahrain will play Tunisia on Friday at the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) Hall in their opening Pool A match of the 16-nation Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship.
This is the fourth time Bahrain are hosting the world championship with the event being held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority (GSA) chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Iran and Thailand are the other two teams slotted in Pool A. Bahrain will square off against Thailand on Saturday before taking on Iran in their last preliminary round match the very next day.
Defending champions Italy – who are in Pool B, along with Brazil, Egypt and Mexico – are tipped to retain their title in the 22nd edition of the championship, which was previously hosted by Bahrain in 1987, 1997 and 2019.
“Our preparations for such a huge event are more or less complete,” the assistant head of the BVA’s media committee for the tournament, Mohammed Ateya told the GDN. “We started preparing for this championship in January at the same time that we laid the groundwork for another big tournament we hosted earlier this year: the 2023 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship, which was held last May.
“With so many top-class teams, along with tournament officials, taking part in the event, the BVA has worked very hard to ensure that all the arrangements are up to the mark and that the championship goes off without a hitch.”
Of the other eight teams, Poland, Bulgaria, Canada and India have been placed in Pool C while Argentina, Belgium, the Czech Republic and the United States (US) have been slotted in Pool D.
Just as with the Asian Men’s Club Championship, the BVA expects a large number of volleyball fans from around the world to converge on Bahrain for the Men’s U21 World Championship, Ateya said.
“We saw a large number of fans from literally around the world come to Bahrain for the Asian Club Championship,” he explained.
“And, given the amount of interest in this U21 World Championship, we are expecting a larger number of fans to fly into the kingdom for the tournament from around the globe.
“Hosting world events like these is not just a matter of great honour and prestige for us, it also brings about an increase in sports tourism to the kingdom, the economic benefits of which are hugely beneficial for Bahrain’s economy.”
A former journalist, Ateya, himself, is passionate about volleyball and thinks Bahrain have a very good chance of progressing to the second round.
“I feel, given the group that Bahrain are in, our prospects of going through to the second round look pretty positive,” he said.
“Of course, we shall have to wait and see how things pan out but, as a keen volleyball fan, I’m pretty confident that our team will make it to at least the second round.”
The tournament is scheduled to run till July 16, with the second round beginning on July 11.
The top two teams from each group will head into the second round, which will be divided into two groups: Pool E, featuring four teams, and Pool F, which will also have four sides. The other eight teams from the preliminary round will also be divided into groups of four each and placed in Pools G and H, where they will play classification matches.
The top two teams from Pools E and F will then head into the semi-finals, while the remaining four teams will go into the classification games zone.
Both semi-finals are scheduled for July 15, with the final to be played a day later.
&uuid=(email))