Poland to host Serbia in special opening match

Poland will host Serbia at the National Stadium in a dream opening match of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014 on August 30 after the successful staging of the Drawing of Lots at the Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science on Monday.

Poland will host Serbia at the National Stadium in a dream opening match of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014 on August 30 after the successful staging of the Drawing of Lots at the Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science on Monday.  

With the 24 participating teams successfully drawn across the four pools, Poland Volleyball Federation President Miroslaw Przedełski confirmed that Poland will host Serbia in the 58,000 capacity football stadium to open the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014. 

The Volleyball World Championships return to an open stadium after more than sixty years. Moscow 1952 was the last time the Volleyball World Championships were played in an open stadium.

“It will be one of the most beautiful World Championship matches ever,” Mr Przedełski said. “We are going to show the world what volleyball is. We haven’t had the World Championships before so this will be a special occasion for Poland.” 

Poland and Serbia are no strangers to each other on the volleyball court having met a total of 36 times in FIVB competitions. The hosts of this year’s World Championship have won 23 of these meetings against their Serbian counterparts. The two countries have also competed against each other a total of five times in the Men’s World Championships in 2006 and 2010 with Poland emerging as the winner each time.

Details of the opening match and ceremony were unveiled as Mr Przedełski also confirmed the rest of Poland’s schedule of matches in Group A, which will be played in Wroclaw.

August 30 Poland v Serbia, National Stadium
September 2 Poland v Australia, Wroclaw
September 4 Poland v Venezuela, Wroclaw
September 6 Poland v CAVB 3, Wroclaw
September 7 Poland v Argentina, Wroclaw

While the rest of the first round schedule will be confirmed in the coming days, the host cities for the tournament phases were announced.

First Round
Group A in Wroclaw
Group B will be held in Katowice 
Group C in Gdansk
Group D in Krakow

Second Round
Group E in Lodz and Bydgoszck
Group F in Katowice and Wroclaw

Third round 
Group G in Krakow and Lodz

Semifinals and Finals in Katowice

With the opening match launching the tournament, the Group A and D matches of the World Championship will begin on Sunday, August 31, with Groups B and C beginning their bid for the Championship title a day later.  The second round of the tournament will take place from September 10 to 14 with group E and F matches. The final six teams will battle it out on the courts during the third round from September 16 to 18.

The top two teams from each third round pool will then advance to the semifinals and finals on September 20 and 21 with - in the only difference to the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014 competition formula - the third ranked teams in the third round pools also playing off for fifth place.

The men’s and women FIVB Volleyball World Championships are staged every four years and are the most prestigious event in international volleyball.

Brazil sealed their third straight FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship title in Italy in 2010 after beating Cuba in the final. Serbia completed the podium after beating the home side in the bronze medal match.

The world’s best 24 teams will compete in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014, which will take place from August 30 to September 21