TEHRAN – Iran U17 head coach is optimistic about FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U17 World Championship, where the Persians are scheduled to meet Libya in their opening match.

The 16 best U17 men’s national teams on the planet begin on Saturday the race to claim the first-ever world title in the age group as the maiden edition starts in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

With matches split between the Levski Sofia sports hall and the Hristo Botev volleyball hall, the tournament will have eight days of action from Aug. 24-31 – there will be one day off on Aug. 28, between the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals.

Featuring national teams representing all five continental confederations, the event will start with four pools of four teams each. Host Bulgaria are in Pool A, alongside European rival Spain, Mexico and the Chinese Taipei.

Pool B will feature three teams from Africa – Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and Iran from Asia.

Iran will start the campaign with Libya in their opening match. Iran will face Tunisia and Egypt in Pool B in the following days.

“We’ve analyzed the Pool B teams and know that there is no easy job ahead of us. But before the competition starts, we played three friendly matches with hosts Bulgaria, Italy and Brazil and found out our strengths and weaknesses,” Sadeghiani said.

“Our priority is to find the new talented players for the senior team and the competition is helpful for our players to gain experience in an international field,” he added.

 “Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are strong African teams but Egypt are the mail opponents in our pool as their senior team played in 2024 Olympic Games,” Sadeghiani stated.

Pool C has representatives from South America – Argentina -, Europe – Italy – and the NORCECA region – Cuba and Puerto Rico. Finally, Pool D has two national teams from South America – Brazil and Chile -, one from Europe – Belgium – and another one from Asia – Uzbekistan.

All 16 national teams will advance to the Round of 16 and their pool positions will determine their matchups. The eight teams that prevail in their first elimination matches move forward to the quarterfinals, while the losers play the playoffs from ninth to 16th place, volleyballworld.com reported.