Sweden returns to play host to a major continental Volleyball competition after more than three decades, according to the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV).
The Scandinavian country and more specifically the city of Göteborg will welcome six of the teams contesting the pool stage of the CEV EuroVolley 2026 Women in an endeavour that will certainly help raise the profile of the sport to unprecedented heights! The EuroVolley matches will be taking place at the iconic, state-of-the-art Scandinavium in Göteborg, Sweden’s second largest city. The news was broken to members of the public earlier today by the Swedish public broadcaster, SVT, during their morning show ‘Morgonstudion’ which is watched daily by hundreds of thousands of Swedes.
The last and only time Europe’s premier competition for national teams was held in Sweden dates to 1989 – with the men’s tournament organised in Stockholm and Örebro – when Italy crowned themselves European champions for the first time in history after edging the home heroes of Sweden in Stockholm’s Globe Arena.
The success achieved by Team Sweden and especially by their star player Isabelle Haak – awarded as CEV Female Player of the Year in 2022 – have certainly helped revitalise the sport in the Scandinavian country and draw much attention from media and fans alike. Haak, who currently plays for A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO in the Italian national league, was highly instrumental to the historic result that Team Sweden achieved in 2021 – when they reached the quarterfinals and finished the tournament in 8th place in their first EuroVolley appearance since 1983.
“We have been witnessing the enormous progress made by the Swedish Volleyball Federation in the past few years and we have been truly impressed by all their efforts to constantly raise the bar and achieve higher levels of performance, on as well as off the court. Therefore, we are delighted and grateful that our friends and colleagues from Sweden have committed to organise the marquee event for women’s national teams in 2026, thus bringing a competition of this calibre to Sweden for the first time since the 1989 men’s European Championship – an event that has gone down in Volleyball history,” said CEV President Aleksandar Boričić.
