Alan Nine
International
SAN MARINO — San Marino’s men are set for the Small Countries Association European Championship, scheduled from June 4 to 8 at the South Lake Leisure Centre in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. Head coach Roberto Pascucci selected 12 players for the competition, including setters Marco Rondelli and Davide Gasperoni, middle blockers Matteo Bernardi, Federico Mazza and Luca Volpinari, opposite Nicolò Conti, opposite/outside hitter Davide Mazza, outside hitters Davide Garattoni, Matteo Bonfè and Lorenzo Benvenuti, and liberos Gabriele Giri and Elia Lazzarini.
Volleyball.it reported that San Marino will play in Pool B with Liechtenstein and Scotland, while the other pool includes Northern Ireland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands. The Titani will open on Friday, June 5 at 10:00 against Liechtenstein, then face Scotland on Saturday, June 6 at the same time. Pascucci described the squad as part of a transition between an older and a younger generation, while also reminding his group that San Marino enters the event as defending champion.
MANILA — Another important international item came from the federation level, with the FIVB suspending the Philippine federation and appointing an ad hoc committee. Volleyball.it framed the move as a significant governance development with direct relevance to the international season and to the wider world-volleyball structure around the Philippines.
Italian National Teams
VERONA — Italy’s men moved toward the next test match against Belgium, with Ferdinando De Giorgi, Mattia Bottolo and Sani calling on the public to support the team at the Pala Magis. The build-up kept the men’s national side in focus less than 24 hours after the win over Turkey, extending the visibility of the early-season work around the senior group.
CAVALESE — The post-match reaction to the 3-0 victory over Turkey also remained part of the day’s coverage. In the piece highlighted by Volleyball.it, De Giorgi stressed that these matches are needed to transform training work into match habits. The same Italy-Turkey night also produced the first senior-team reflections from Pardo Mati, who described his debut with the national team as a dream.
On the women’s side, Julio Velasco chose the 14 Italian players for the Women’s VNL pool in Brasilia. Volleyball.it presented the selection as one of the central steps in Italy’s immediate preparation for the next international block, giving the women’s program a major position in the May 29 news flow.
European Cups
LUXEMBOURG — A major regulatory change arrived from the CEV, which approved a new qualification system for its European knockout ties. Volleyball.it reported that advancement will no longer depend on winning one match convincingly and then taking the two sets needed in the return leg. From now on, the deciding factor will be the number of matches won across the two-leg tie. If each side wins one match, qualification will always be decided by a Golden Set, regardless of the set scores accumulated beforehand.
The practical consequence is significant. Under the previous system, a team could win the first match 3-0 or 3-1 and then secure passage by taking only two sets in the second leg. With the new format, a side that wins the first leg 3-0 and then loses the return match 2-3 will no longer qualify automatically, because the teams would be level on one victory each and would have to play the extra set. According to Volleyball.it, the CEV presented the change as a way to keep ties open until the final ball and to remove situations in which a team that had already done enough on aggregate could lower the intensity or turn to reserves before the match itself was truly over.
Italian Transfer News
CUNEO — The Italian market remained highly active, starting with Cuneo, which officially announced the arrival of Poriya Khanzadeh for the 2026/27 season. The men’s A2 and women’s A2 streams also stayed busy. Porto Viro entrusted its attack to Diego Cantagalli, while Akademia Sant’Anna targeted Canadian player Payton Henderson.
In women’s A2, Futura Volley Giovani assigned the middle of the net to Francesca Cosi, and Trentino Volley restarted with six confirmations for the new season. Volleyball.it also pushed a broader market service through Volleyball.it+, promoting its exclusive 2026/27 Serie A2 men’s and women’s boards as a reference point for the evolving transfer picture.
SuperLega
PRATA DI PORDENONE — Outside the transfer market, one of the main club stories involved Prata di Pordenone, with the club waiting for developments after the precautionary suspension of Kristian Gamba and Simone Scopelliti. Volleyball.it treated the situation as a live issue for the club’s immediate planning and public communication.
Youth
BIGMAT FINALS — The youth sector also carried substantial weight in the May 29 package. In the Under 15 boys’ National Finals, the quarterfinal field was defined and the best eight teams in Italy remained in the race. The same step was completed in the Under 14 girls’ National Finals, where the quarterfinalists were also set and only the final eight stayed alive in the tournament bracket.
