Trento and Novara Advance in the Champions League; Italy Sweeps Both Volleyball Matches

Italy will have four teams competing in the 2026–2027 Men’s Volleyball Champions League. The CEV has awarded a wild card to Trento, allowing the Dolomite-based team to enter Europe’s top competition despite failing to qualify through regular play. Last season, due to numerous injuries in the final stretch of the campaign, Trento was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs and subsequently had to compete for a spot in the Challenge Cup.

Trento, a club that has won the Champions League four times in its history (most recently in 2024), will therefore take part in the tournament alongside Perugia, the Italian champion and defending continental champion, Civitanova, last season’s runner-up, and Verona, the highest-ranked semifinalist from the regular season.

The other wild cards awarded in the men’s competition went to Spain’s Guaguas Las Palmas—the team featuring Osmany Juantorena, who had a standout season—and to Romania’s Dinamo Bucharest.

There is also good news for Novara, which has secured a wild card for the Women’s Champions League for the second consecutive year. The Piedmont-based team was selected by the CEV alongside Turkey’s Galatasaray Istanbul and will advance directly to the group stage. Novara will thus join Conegliano, the Italian champion and third-place finisher in the last edition of the tournament; Milan, the league runner-up; and Scandicci, which finished fourth in the previous Champions League.