Volleyball Race for Boys' U-17 World Title to Start in Bulgaria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The 16 best U-17 men’s national teams are going to compete for the first-ever world title in the age group as the maiden edition of the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U-17 World Championship will kick off in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Saturday.
With matches split between the Levski Sofia sports hall and the Hristo Botev volleyball hall, the tournament will have eight days of action from August 24 to 31. There will be one day off on August 28, between the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals.
Featuring national teams representing all five continental confederations, the event will start with four pools of four teams each. Host Bulgaria is in Pool A, alongside European rival Spain, Mexico and the Chinese Taipei.
Pool B will feature three teams from Africa -Egypt, Libya and Tunisia- and Iran from Asia.
The Persians are scheduled to meet Libya in their opening match. The Iranian boys, headed by Arash Sadeqiani, will face Tunisia and Egypt in Pool B in the following days.
Pool C has representatives from South America and Europe -Argentina and Italy- and the NORCECA region –Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Finally, Pool D has two national teams from South America –Brazil and Chile-, one from Europe –Belgium- and another one from Asia, namely Uzbekistan.
All 16 national teams will advance to the Round of 16 and their pool positions will determine their matchups.
The eight teams that prevail in their first elimination matches will move forward to the quarterfinals, while the losers play the playoffs from ninth to 16th place, volleyballworld.com reported.