2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup

The 2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup was the first of the newly rebranded AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup, and sixth overall edition of the formerly known 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.^[1]

2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup

أمم آسيا لرجال الطائرة
Official logo
Tournament details
Host nation	Bahrain
City	Manama
Dates	17–24 June
Teams	11 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Champions	Bahrain (1st title)
Runners-up	Pakistan
Third place	Qatar
Fourth place	South Korea
Tournament awards
MVP	Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob
Best Setter	Mahmood Alafyah
Best OH	Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob Murad Jehan
Best MB	Musawer Khan Belal Nabel Abunabot
Best OPP	Ali Khamis
Best Libero	Ayman Haroon
Tournament statistics
Matches played	25
Attendance	20,585 (823 per match)
Official website
2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup
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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.^[2]

Host Bahrain won their first title after defeating the Pakistan in the final.^[3] This was Pakistan's second consecutive defeat in the final of the tournament.^[4] Qatar beat South Korea in the 3rd place match and took the bronze medal.^[5] Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob was named as the MVP of the tournament.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Qualification

List of teams:

  Participating in the 2025 FIVB Nations League

  Participating in the 2025 AVC Nations Cup

  Did not participate

Following AVC regulations, a maximum of 12 teams for the next AVC Nations Cup were selected through the following criteria:^[1]

• 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.

Country	Zone	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances			Previous best performance
				Total	First	Last
Bahrain[a]	WAVA	Host country	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	Runners-up (2023)
Qatar	WAVA	Defending champions	8 June 2024	1	2024		Champions (2024)
Pakistan	CAVA	2024 Challenge Cup runners-up	8 June 2024	1	2024		Runners-up (2024)
South Korea	EAVA	2024 Challenge Cup 3rd placers	8 June 2024	2	2023	2024	3rd place (2023, 2024)
Kazakhstan[b]	CAVA	2024 Challenge Cup 4th placers	8 June 2024	2	2023	2024	4th place (2024)
Vietnam	SAVA	2024 Challenge Cup 6th placers	8 June 2024	2	2023	2024	4th place (2023)
Australia[a]	OZVA	2024 Challenge Cup 8th placers	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	5th place (2023)
Chinese Taipei	EAVA	1st World ranked non-qualified team	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	9th place (2023)
Indonesia	SAVA	2nd World ranked non-qualified team	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	6th place (2023)
Philippines	SAVA	3rd World ranked non-qualified team	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	10th place (2023, 2024)
Thailand	SAVA	4th World ranked non-qualified team	15 April 2025	2	2023	2024	Champions (2023)
New Zealand	OZVA	Additional entrant team	19 May 2025	0	None		None

 China,  Iran, and  Japan which are part of the 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League are ineligible to submit entries to this tournament.^[9]

Pools composition

The teams were split into four pools with three teams each. The draw of lots took place on 25 May 2025.^[10]

Teams were seeded in the first position of each pool following the rank of the previous edition, with the host automatically seeded in Pool A and the top teams occupying the remaining slots. All teams not seeded were drawn to take other available positions in the remaining lines, following their position according to their FIVB Senior World Rankings as of 8 January 2025.

Seeded teams	Pot 1	Pot 2
Bahrain (58) (Hosts)  Qatar (21) (1st)  Pakistan (46) (2nd)  South Korea (27) (3rd)	Australia (33)  Chinese Taipei (45)  Indonesia (51)  Vietnam (52)	Kazakhstan (53)  Philippines (56)  Thailand (57)  New Zealand (–)

Drawing results

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Bahrain	Qatar	Pakistan	South Korea
Indonesia	Australia	Chinese Taipei	Vietnam
Thailand	Kazakhstan	Philippines	New Zealand

Venue

Manama, Bahrain
Isa Bin Rashed Hall
Capacity: 10,500

Pool standing procedure

1. Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
2. 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
3. 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

Main article: 2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Nations Cup squads

Preliminary round

• All times are Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).

Pool A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	Bahrain (H)	2	2	0	6	6	1	6.000	173	147	1.177	Quarterfinals
2	Indonesia	2	1	1	2	3	5	0.600	169	177	0.955
3	Thailand	2	0	2	1	3	6	0.500	187	205	0.912	9th–11th places

Source: FIVB Live Center
(H) Host

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
17 Jun	19:00	Bahrain	3–1	Thailand	25–21	21–25	25–19	25–22		96–87	P2 Report
18 Jun	19:00	Indonesia	3–2	Thailand	22–25	22–25	25–19	25–23	15–8	109–100	P2 Report
19 Jun	19:00	Bahrain	3–0	Indonesia	25–13	27–25	25–22			77–60	P2 Report

Pool B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	Qatar	1	1	0	3	3	0	MAX	75	65	1.154	Quarterfinals
2	Australia	1	0	1	0	0	3	0.000	65	75	0.867

Source: FIVB Live Center

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
19 Jun	11:30	Qatar	3–0	Australia	25–22	25–21	25–22			75–65	P2 Report

Pool C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	Pakistan	2	2	0	5	6	3	2.000	198	185	1.070	Quarterfinals
2	Chinese Taipei	2	1	1	4	5	4	1.250	211	197	1.071
3	Philippines	2	0	2	0	2	6	0.333	169	196	0.862	9th–11th places

Source: FIVB Live Center

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
17 Jun	14:00	Pakistan	3–1	Philippines	25–18	25–12	18–25	25–22		93–77	P2 Report
18 Jun	14:00	Chinese Taipei	3–1	Philippines	25–19	23–25	30–28	25–20		103–92	P2 Report
19 Jun	14:00	Pakistan	3–2	Chinese Taipei	25–20	25–22	21–25	16–25	18–16	105–108	P2 Report

Pool D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR	Qualification
1	South Korea	2	2	0	6	6	0	MAX	153	118	1.297	Quarterfinals
2	Vietnam	2	1	1	3	3	3	1.000	132	135	0.978
3	New Zealand	2	0	2	0	0	6	0.000	121	153	0.791	9th–11th places

Source: FIVB Live Center

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
17 Jun	16:30	South Korea	3–0	New Zealand	28–26	25–13	25–22			78–61	P2 Report
18 Jun	16:30	Vietnam	3–0	New Zealand	25–23	25–22	25–15			75–60	P2 Report
19 Jun	16:30	South Korea	3–0	Vietnam	25–22	25–23	25–12			75–57	P2 Report

Final round

• All times are Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).

9th–11th places

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	Pts	SW	SL	SR	SPW	SPL	SPR
9	Thailand	2	2	0	6	6	0	MAX	152	121	1.256
10	Philippines	2	1	1	3	3	4	0.750	157	149	1.054
11	New Zealand	2	0	2	0	1	6	0.167	136	175	0.777

Source: FIVB Live Center

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	19:00	Thailand	3–0	Philippines	25–21	25–20	25–18			75–59	P2 Report
22 Jun	14:00	Thailand	3–0	New Zealand	25–20	25–17	27–25			77–62	P2 Report
24 Jun	12:00	Philippines	3–1	New Zealand	25–16	23–25	25–11	25–22		98–74	P2 Report

Final eight

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Final
	21 June
	Bahrain	3
					23 June
	Chinese Taipei	0
					Bahrain	3
	21 June
					South Korea	2
	Australia	1
									24 June
	South Korea	3
									Bahrain	3
	21 June
									Pakistan	1
	Indonesia	1
					23 June
	Pakistan	3
					Pakistan	3
	21 June
					Qatar	0			3rd place match
	Qatar	3
									24 June
	Vietnam	2
									South Korea	0
									Qatar	3

	5th–8th semifinals				5th place match
	22 June
	Chinese Taipei	1
					23 June
	Australia	3
					Australia	3
	22 June
					Indonesia	0
	Indonesia	3
	Vietnam	2
					7th place match
					23 June
					Chinese Taipei	3
					Vietnam	1

Quarterfinals

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
21 Jun	11:30	Australia	1–3	South Korea	23–25	18–25	25–22	23–25		89–97	P2 Report
21 Jun	14:00	Indonesia	1–3	Pakistan	25–20	21–25	20–25	17–25		83–95	P2 Report
21 Jun	16:30	Qatar	3–2	Vietnam	29–31	25–21	25–15	22–25	15–12	116–104	P2 Report
21 Jun	19:00	Bahrain	3–0	Chinese Taipei	25–18	25–22	35–33			85–73	P2 Report

5th–8th semifinals

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
22 Jun	16:30	Chinese Taipei	1–3	Australia	22–25	25–20	12–25	19–25		78–95	P2 Report
22 Jun	19:00	Indonesia	3–2	Vietnam	23–25	24–26	25–17	25–23	15–12	112–103	P2 Report

Semifinals

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
23 Jun	16:30	Pakistan	3–0	Qatar	25–22	25–22	25–21			75–65	P2 Report
23 Jun	19:00	Bahrain	3–2	South Korea	25–21	25–23	21–25	18–25	15–13	104–107	P2 Report

7th place match

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
23 Jun	11:30	Chinese Taipei	3–1	Vietnam	21–25	25–22	25–19	25–22		96–88	P2 Report

5th place match

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
23 Jun	14:00	Australia	3–0	Indonesia	25–20	25–21	25–22			75–63	P2 Report

3rd place match

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
24 Jun	15:00	South Korea	0–3	Qatar	21–25	20–25	23–25			64–75	P2 Report

Final

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
24 Jun	19:00	Bahrain	3–1	Pakistan	23–25	25–16	25–17	25–18		98–76	P2 Report

Final standing

Rank Team  Bahrain  Pakistan  Qatar 4  South Korea 5  Australia 6  Indonesia 7  Chinese Taipei 8  Vietnam 9  Thailand 10  Philippines 11  New Zealand Qualified for the 2026 Asian Championship

2025 Asian Nations Cup champions  Bahrain First title 14–man roster Mohamed 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 Warqaa Head coach Arnaud Josserand

Awards

• Most valuable player

   Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob (BHR)

• Best setter

   Mahmood Alafyah (BHR)

• Best outside spikers

   Mohamed Abdulla Yaqoob (BHR)

   Murad Jehan (PAK)

• Best middle blockers

   Musawer Khan (PAK)

   Belal Nabel Abunabot (QAT)

• Best opposite spiker

   Ali Khamis (BHR)

• Best libero

   Ayman Haroon (BHR)

Broadcasting rights

Country/region	Broadcaster
Global	Volleyball TV, YouTube
Indonesia	Emtek (Vidio, Moji)
Philippines	Cignal (One Sports, Pilipinas Live)

See also

• 2025 AVC Women's Volleyball Nations Cup

Notes

1. As China qualified for the 2025 Nations League on 7 July 2024, Bahrain qualified as the 2024 Challenge Cup 7th placers. Their spot was allocated to Australia after being awarded hosting rights on 15 April 2025.^{[citation needed]}
2. Kazakhstan withdrew from tournament on 14 June 2025 due to political conflict between Israel and Iran.^[8]