The AVC Men's Volleyball Champions League is an annual continental club

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

competition organised by the

Asian Volleyball Confederation The Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) is one of five continental bodies of governance in volleyball. It governs indoor volleyball, beach volleyball and other disciplines in Asia and Oceania, excluding the transcontinental countries of Russi ...

(AVC), and contested by Asia and Oceania's top-division volleyball clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition in Asia and Oceanian volleyball, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national federations. Introduced in 1999 as the AVC Cup Men's Club Volleyball Tournament, the competition rebranded as Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship in 2004. It was rebranded again in 2025 to its current name. Despite its name implying a league format, the competition is structured as a tournament featuring 12 elite clubs from across Asia and Oceania. The champion and runner-up of the competition earn qualification for the prestigious FIVB Men's Volleyball Club World Championship. The most successful club in the competition is

Paykan Tehran Paykan Club is an Iranian sports club based in Tehran, Iran. The club was founded in 1967. Teams * Paykan Football Club, competing in the Iran Pro League The Persian Gulf Pro League (, ''Lig-e Bartar-e Xalij-e Fârs''), formerly known as the Ir ...

with a total of eight titles. Iran's teams have been dominating the tournament by winning 17 times, the most for any nation. The current Asian club champions are

Al-Rayyan Sports Club Al-Rayyan Sports Club () is a Qatari multi-sports club fielding teams in a number of sports such as football, futsal, basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics, table tennis, and swimming. It is based at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Umm ...

from

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, who defeated Osaka Bluteon from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(3–0) in the 2025 final.

History

The competition began in 1999 when the

(AVC) announced the establishment of the first official men's and women's club championships, to be held under its supervision. The tournament was initially known as the ''AVC Cup Men's Club Volleyball Tournament'' for its first four editions, before being renamed the ''Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship'' in 2004. The inaugural edition was played in a round-robin format. From 2000 to 2004, the competition adopted a two-round system: a preliminary round (featuring a pool round, from which the top four teams advanced) followed by a final round (consisting of semi-finals and a final). In 2005, the tournament reverted to a round-robin format. Between 2006 and 2009, it once again featured two rounds: preliminary and final rounds. Currently, the tournament follows a similar format to the 2006–2009 editions, but the final stage now includes quarter-finals, semi-finals, and a final. Starting with the 2025 edition, the tournament will be rebranded as the ''AVC Men's Volleyball Champions League''.

Competition formula

Qualification

The tournament features a maximum of 12 participating teams, with the host country automatically qualifying. The host nation is permitted to field up to two teams in the competition. Other teams will qualify through the designated qualification pathway established for that particular year. For the 2025 edition, all remaining participating teams were granted entry by invitation only.

Final tournament

The tournament consists of two rounds: a preliminary round (pool phase) and a final round (direct elimination phase). During the preliminary round, the 12 qualified teams are divided into four pools—labeled A through D—each containing three teams. Within each pool, teams compete in a round-robin format, with each team playing against the other two teams once. Following the pool phase, the top two teams from each pool advance to the final round, which includes the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final match.

Prize money

The teams advancing to the semifinals of this competition will be awarded a total prize of US$50,000 by the

(AVC). This marks the first time that a prize has been introduced in an AVC event in 2025. *Champions: US$20,000 *Runners-up: US$15,000 *Third place: US$10,000 *Fourth place: US$5,000

Results

Performances by club

Performances by country

Performances by zonal association

Hosts

List of hosts by number of championships hosted.

Medals

As of 2025 AVC Men's Volleyball Champions League.

MVP by edition

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

– ( Sichuan Fulan) *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

– ( Samsung Fire) *

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

– ( Samsung Fire) *

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

– (

) *2003 – ''tournament canceled'' *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

– ( Sanam Tehran) *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

– ''not awarded'' *

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

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2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

– ( Rahat Almaty) *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

– ( Al Nasr) *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

– ( Al Arabi) *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

– ( Kalleh Mazandaran) *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

– ( Matin Varamin) *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

– ( Taichung Bank) *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

– ( Sarmayeh Bank Tehran) *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

– ( Sarmayeh Bank Tehran) *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

– ( Khatam Ardakan) *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

– ( Shahrdari Varamin) *2020 – ''tournament canceled'' *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

– ( Foolad Sirjan Iranian) *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

– ( Suntory Sunbirds) *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...