TEHRAN – Iran volleyball coach Igor Kolakovic says they are well-prepared for the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Week 1.

The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League will be the second edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League, an annual international men's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams.

Iran and Italy will open the second edition on May 31 in the Chinese city of Jiangmen, Guangdong province.

The Jiangmen pool also features hosts China and Germany. Team Melli are scheduled to face China and Germany on June 1 and 2, respectively.

“The first week is the toughest week and we know that a difficult task is ahead of us. We will travel to China to win our matches despite knowing that volleyball is not predictable,” Kolakovic said.

“Iran have a strong combination of experienced and young talented players. I hope we keep our good condition until the end of the tournament. We know that Iranian people have high expectations but all 16 teams are there to qualify for the final round,” the Montenegrin added.

“I hope we do our best in the competition because our players are well-prepared to advance to the final round. We wanted to arrange a couple of friendly matches before taking part in the competition but nobody accepted it. Anyway, Iran want to win a place in the final round,” Kolakovic concluded.

The men's VNL features 16 teams playing in round-robin over five weekends.

The competition will wrap up on June 30, before the top six teams move to Chicago for the finals from July 10-14.

This will be the first edition of the World League or the Nations League to have the Final Round hosted in North America.