Two Iranian teams will represent Asia at the upcoming 2024 FIVB Men's Club World Championship. These are Foolad Sirjan and Shahdab Yazd, who took first and second place in the continental championship, which concluded on Sunday. In the all-Iranian final of the Asian Club Championship, Sirjan defeated hosts Yazd 3:0. The team led by Behrouz Ataei won all six matches in the tournament, including two against Indonesian club Jakarta – in the group stage (3:1) and in the semifinals (3:2). Olympic champions Earvin Ngapeth and Jean Patry played for the Indonesians in the tournament.

In the semifinals, Patry scored 31 points with 60% attack efficiency, and Ngapeth finished with 16 points with 44% attack efficiency (15/34), but it was not enough for victory. For Sirjan, former Ural Russian player Amirhossein Esfandiar (24 points) and opposite Ali Hajipour (25 points) shone.
In the other semifinal, Yazd, led by Amir Ghafour, defeated Kazakhstan's Pavlodar, featuring Russians Roman Egorov, Nikita Kozlov, and Dmitry Leontiev.
In the bronze medal match, Sergey Gribov's team could not offer serious resistance to Jakarta.

Sirjan won the tournament for the second time in history, repeating their success from 2021. Last year, Dmitry Muserskiy's Japanese 'Suntory' became the winner of the Asian Club Championship, but the team refused to participate in the tournament and defend the title.

photos:volleyballworld.com