The 2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup was the first and final edition under this name, and the fifth overall edition of the tournament formerly known as the AVC Men's Challenge Cup, an annual international volleyball tournament organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) with Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA). It was held from 17 to 24 June 2025 in Manama, Bahrain.
As the FIVB Volleyball Nations League restructured its format and abolished the Challenger Cup as a direct qualifier to the tournament, this tournament will serve to countries currently not participating in the Nations League to garner world ranking points for a chance to enter the said competition. Bahrain, the champions of this tournament qualified for the 2026 Asian Championship.
Host Bahrain won their first title after defeating the Pakistan in the final. This was Pakistan's second consecutive defeat in the final of the tournament. Qatar beat South Korea in the 3rd place match and took the bronze medal. Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob was named as the MVP of the tournament.
Suspension of the final match was considered due to security issues arising from the Iranian strikes on Al Udeid Air Base. However the plan was dropped after guarantees from the host country's government and federation.
Host selection Bahrain is the only country that submitted its bid to host the tournament and AVC was awarded the hosting rights in February 2025.
Qualification
Following AVC regulations, a maximum of 12 teams for the next AVC Nations Cup were selected through the following criteria: 1 team for the host country 6 other top-ranked teams from the previous edition (2024) 5 other highest-ranked entrant teams in the FIVB Senior World Rankings If a team does not have world ranking points, the final decision will be made by AVC in consultation with Volleyball World and the host country.
CountryZoneQualified asQualified onPrevious appearancesPrevious best performanceTotalFirstLastWAVAHost country15 April 2025220232024Runners-up (2023)WAVADefending champions8 June 202412024Champions (2024)CAVA2024 Challenge Cup runners-up8 June 202412024Runners-up (2024)EAVA2024 Challenge Cup 3rd placers8 June 20242202320243rd place (2023, 2024)CAVA2024 Challenge Cup 4th placers8 June 20242202320244th place (2024)SAVA2024 Challenge Cup 6th placers8 June 20242202320244th place (2023)OZVA2024 Challenge Cup 8th placers15 April 20252202320245th place (2023)EAVA1st World ranked non-qualified team15 April 20252202320249th place (2023)SAVA15 April 20252202320246th place (2023)SAVA3rd World ranked non-qualified team15 April 202522023202410th place (2023, 2024)SAVA4th World ranked non-qualified team15 April 2025220232024Champions (2023)OZVAAdditional entrant team19 May 20250NoneDebut
, , and which are part of the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League are ineligible to submit entries to this tournament.
Pools composition The draw of lots took place on 25 May 2025 at the Edsa Shangri-La, Manila in Mandaluyong, Philippines and teams were split into four pools with three teams each.
+Seeded teamsPot 1Pot 2 (58) (Hosts) (21) (1st) (46) (2nd) (27) (3rd) (33) (45) (51) (52) (53) (56) (57) (–)
Drawing results
Pool APool BPool CPool D
Venue Manama, BahrainIsa Bin Rashed HallCapacity: 10,500
Pool standing procedure Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most point gained per match as follows: 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 If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the AVC will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: Set quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all set won by the number of all sets lost. Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the set quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. If the tie persists based on the point quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in point quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.
Squads
Preliminary round All times are Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Pool D
Final round All times are Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).
9th–11th places
Final eight
Quarterfinals
5th–8th semifinals
Semifinals
7th place match
5th place match
3rd place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam4567891011 Qualified for the 2026 Asian Championshipand the 2026 AVC Cup as defending champions
14–man rosterMohamed Anan, Abbas Alkhabbaz, Husain Mansoor, Sayed Hashem Ali, Mahmood Alafyah, Mahmood Ahmed, Mohamed Abdulla, Hani Allawi, Ali Khamis, Naser Anan (c), Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob, Ayman Haroon, Abbas Sultan, Hasan WarqaaHead coach Arnaud Josserand
Awards
Most valuable player
Best setter
Best outside spikers
Best middle blockers
Best opposite spiker
Best libero
Notes
References
External links
2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup at Volleyball World