TEHRAN – Iran, who have never won a medal at the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Men's World Cup, will start the campaign on Tuesday with a match against the tournament’s most decorated team Russia.

Team Melli have traveled to Japan with their main players, however the team can participate at the competition with young players.

The 13 World Cup tournaments have been won by six different national teams. Russia have won six times (four as Soviet Union). The other World Cup winners are Brazil and United States, with two titles each; and Cuba, Italy and Germany (as East Germany), with one title each.

“We want to continue our winning way, that’s why we are here. Iran have recently won the Asian Championship and we are ready to show our good performance in the competition,” opposite spiker Amir Ghafour said.

“We have difficult task in the competition because the teams have come here with their best players. Also, playing 11 matches in 15 days is very difficult, as well as time difference between Iran and Japan. Anyway, we are here to do our best,” he added.  

The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup will be the 14th staging of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup, contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The tournament will be held in Japan from 1 to 15 October 2019.

Japan played hosts for this event for the twelfth consecutive time since 1977.

This is the first time since 1989 that FIVB decided not to allocate any spots in the Olympics, due to Japan hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics.