The 2025 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship will be the 19th edition of the FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship, the biennial international youth volleyball championship contested by the men's national teams under the age of 19 of the members associations of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. It will be held in Uzbekistan from 21 July to 3 August 2025.[1]
Starting with this edition, the tournament was expanded to include 24 teams instead of the 20 teams of previous editions, following the decision adopted by FIVB in June 2023.[2]
On 28 March 2024, FIVB opened the bidding process for member associations whose countries were interested in hosting one of the four Age Group World Championships in 2025 (i.e., U19 Boys' and Girls' World Championships and U21 Men's and Women's World Championships).[3] The expression of interest of the member associations had to be submitted to FIVB by 30 April 2024, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2).[4]
FIVB announced the hosts for its four Age Group World Championship on 10 September 2024,[1] with Uzbekistan being selected to host the 2025 Boys' U19 World Championship. This will be the first time that Uzbekistan will host an FIVB volleyball event in any category.
In June 2023 during a three-day meeting in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, the FIVB Board of Administration approved the proposal made by its Volleyball Council to increase the number of participating teams to 24 in its Age Group World Championships (U19 and U21 in both genders).[6][2] Consequently, the distribution of quotas by confederation for the Boys' U19 World Championship was modified regarding previous editions, ensuring one automatic quota for the defending champion and assigning two quotas based on the corresponding FIVB Age Group World Ranking.[4]
The new competition format is in line with the one adopted for the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U19 World Championship. The 24 teams were split into four single round-robin pools of six with the top four teams from each pool advancing to the round of 16, while the ramaining two teams continuing their participation in the playoffs for places from 17th to 24th. The round of 16 winners advances to the quarter-finals, while the losers continue their participation in the playoffs for places from 9th to 16th. Finally, the 24 teams go through another three rounds: quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals for each team's final placement level (17th–24th, 9th–16th and 1st–8th).[7]
The ranking of teams in the preliminary round was established according the following criteria:[8]
Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost);
Match points;
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser
Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser
Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser
Sets ratio;
Points ratio;
If the tie continues between two teams: result of the last match between the tied teams. If the tie continues between three or more teams: a new classification would be made taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
A total of 24 national teams qualified for the final tournament.[4] In addition to the host Uzbekistan and defending champions France which qualified automatically, 20 other teams qualified through five separate continental competitions which had to be completed by 31 December 2024 at the latest. Two remaining teams entered the tournament via the Boys' U19 FIVB World Ranking (as of 24 September 2024) among the teams not yet qualified.
Each national team had to register a long-list roster with up to 25 players, which eventually had to be reduced to a final list of 12 players. Players born on or after 1 January 2007 were eligible to compete in the tournament.[4]
The draw was held on 4 December 2024, 13:30 UTC±0, at the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.[5][9] The 24 participating teams were split into four pools of six. The hosts Croatia and Serbia, defending champions United States and the top five teams of the Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking (as of 24 September 2024)[update] were seeded in the first two positions of each pool following the serpentine system. FIVB reserved the right to seed the host teams as heads of pools A and B regardless of their position in the World Ranking (with the highest ranked team as head of Pool A and next ranked team as head of Pool B). The remaining 16 non-seeded teams were allocated into four pots according to their position in the same Girls' U19 FIVB World Ranking, in order to be drawn to complete the following four positions in each pool.[10]
Uzbekistan
Manama, 28 July–4 August)
Japan
Pakistan
China
Iran
South Korea
Tunis, 24–30 August)
Egypt
Algeria
France
Plovdiv and Sofia, 10–21 July)
Italy
Spain
Poland
Belgium
Finland
Turkey
Araguari, 31 July–4 August)
Argentina
Colombia
Ponce, 14–19 May)
United States
Canada
Cuba
Germany