The Men’s Volleyball Nations League program has been unveiled. France, holders of the title, will play their home matches in Orléans.
The Blues are fixed! Title holders of the Nations League, a competition they love, with seven medals gleaned since 2006 (it was the World League at the time), including three victories (2015, 2017, 2022), the French know the program of the 2023 edition, which will take place from June 6 to July 23. Like last year, the League of Nations will oppose twelve countries in the group stage for three weeks (in six different countries), then the first eight will compete in the final phase, which will take place this year in Gdansk in Poland. For France, the competition will start in Nagoya in Japan with four matches against Poland (June 7), China (June 9), Slovenia (June 10) and Japan (June 11). Then the Blues will return to the country, to face Argentina (June 21), Cuba (June 23), Canada (June 24) and Brazil (June 25) in the brand new 10,000-seat hall in Orléans, COMet. Finally, the Olympic champions will set their course for California, and the city of Anaheim, to challenge Iran (July 4), Serbia (July 7), the United States (July 9) and Germany (July 10). If they finish in the Top 8 (and not being there would certainly be considered a failure), we will then find them in Gdansk for the quarter-finals on July 19 or 20, in a format “first against eighth”, “second against seventh”…
Euro objective for the Blues
Like every year, this League of Nations will not be taken lightly by the Blues, but it will serve as a period of preparation and testing before the big event of the season, which this year will be the Euro in September, with a group stage in Israel, against co-hosts Greece, Portugal, Romania and Turkey, and a final stage in Italy. Before the Euro (a competition that France has only won once, in 2015), the French will play a preparation tournament in Poland, against the Poles, the Serbs and the Italians. What give a good idea of their state of form.
