From 10-19 June, the Beach Volleyball World Championships 2022 will take place in the Italian capital. Organised by the sport's global governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) in cooperation with the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Sport e Salute, and the Italian Volleyball Federation (FIPAV), the event is one of the pinnacles of the discipline and will act as a festival of everything to do with beach volleyball. The competition is held biennially and with over 130,000 spectators set to attend, this is one you don’t want to miss!
Events during the Beach Volleyball World Championships take place on Foro Italico's impressive Central Court. Tickets are divided into 2 price brackets: the second tier (Distinti) offers great views across the whole stadium; and the first tier (Tribuna) has seats closer to the action! These high-demand tickets can be purchased for a single day or to cover the entire tournament so that you won't miss a moment. Prices for a single day start at just EUR €9.50 (GBP £7.87 / USD $12.97) and for the entire tournament start at €144 (£119.27 / $155.65).
In the men’s tournament, you can expect to see Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, Norway’s Beachvolley Vikings who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and claimed victory at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in 2021. Look out for Qatar’s iconic duo, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan who will be playing for their first-ever World Championships podium finish. In the women’s tournament, expect a strong display from reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes from Canada who will have to fend off fierce competition from Switzerland and the USA.
A total of 48 men’s and 48 women’s teams will take part with the tournament consisting of 2 stages: a group stage, then a knockout stage. In the group stage, the teams play in 12 pools of 4 teams in a round-robin system and each team plays the 3 other teams in their pool. The teams are ranked by the match points they earn. The top 2 teams from each pool and the best 4 third-ranked teams in their respective pools advance automatically to the final phase. The remaining 8 third-ranked teams play a 4-match lucky loser round. The knockout stage begins with the round of 32 followed by the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and medal matches. The prize pool for each gender is US$500,000.
The World Championships are nestled in the middle of the beach volleyball season as a central marker for the new format Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. There are still plenty of Beach Pro Tour events left this year including those in Gstaad (6-10 July), Paris (28 September-2 October), and many more worldwide locations. There’s also the immensely popular King of the Court which this year has been expanded to 5 events in Hamburg (23-26 June), Utrecht (6-11 September), Itapema (2-6 November), Australia (1-4 December), and the finals in Doha (11-14 January 2023). If that’s not sated your appetite, the European Championships take place in Munich from 15-21 August!
Don’t bury your head in the sand and miss out on a sensational summer of beach volleyball! Take a look at all events here and book your tickets now!
