Iran men's national volleyball team

Iran
Association	IRIVF
Head coach	Roberto Piazza
FIVB ranking	15 (as of 8 January 2025)
Uniforms
Summer Olympics
Appearances	2 (First in 2016)
Best result	5th (2016)
World Championship
Appearances	8 (First in 1970)
Best result	6th (2014)
World Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1991)
Best result	8th (2015, 2019)
Asian Championship
Appearances	20 (First in 1979)
Best result	(2011, 2013, 2019, 2021)
	volleyball.ir
Medal record
World Grand Champions Cup
Asian Championship
Asian Games
Asian Cup
Islamic Solidarity Games
West Asian Games
Central Asian Championship

The Iran men's national volleyball team is the official national men's volleyball team of Iran. It is governed by the Iran Volleyball Federation (I.R.I.V.F.) and takes part in international volleyball competitions.

As of 11 September 2022, Team Melli is considered as the second team in Asia, as it ranks 10th in the FIVB World Rankings.^[1]

The national team won the Asian Volleyball Championship four times: in 2011 Tehran, 2013 Dubai, 2019 Tehran and 2021 Chiba & Funabashi

In its first appearance in the competition since joining the 2013 World League, Iran has been a dominant force in Group 1.^{[citation needed]}

In 2014 World League campaign, Iran's national team reached fourth place in Group 1 after a straight-set defeat to their Italian hosts in the bronze medal match. In these games, Iran had already defeated Brazil, Italy and Poland.^{[citation needed]}

Iran has also competed in the World Championship four times, with their best result obtained in 2014 Poland where they ended up in 6th place. In those games Iran qualified from the first and second rounds with, respectively, four and five wins; their only defeat was against France.^{[citation needed]}

Iran defeated Japan to win the gold medal at the Asian Games Korea in 2014. Consecutively, in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, Iran cruised past Japan and South Korea to win the gold medal.^{[citation needed]}

Iran made it to the Olympic Games for the first time in their history in 1984 as the top-ranked Asian squad at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan. Iran finished in 5th place in the competition.^{[citation needed]}

History

The history of Iran's national volleyball team dates back to around 1320 when Alireza Beiranvand brought volleyball regulations to Iran. During World War II, Allied forces occupied Iran, and Iranians participated in sports, including volleyball, with soldiers. At that time a friendly match was arranged between the Iranian and Russian Army teams. In 1958, for the first time, national men's team of Pakistan was invited to Tehran for some friendly matches with the national team, club teams and the Army team. Iran's national team first attended an international competition at the 1958 Asian Games, where they won the silver medal.^[2]

Tournament records

Olympic Games

Olympic Games record										Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad		GP	MW	ML	SW	SL
1964	Did not participate or Did not qualify									6	2	4	10	12
1968										Did not participate or Did not qualify
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004										7	4	3	13	11
2008										7	2	5	11	16
2012										7	5	2	16	9
2016	Quarterfinals	5th place	6	2	4	8	12	Squad	7	6	1	18	11
2020	Preliminary round	9th place	5	2	3	9	11	Squad	8	7	1	21	7
2024	Did not qualify								7	1	6	7	19
2028	Future event								Future event
2032	Future event								Future event
Total	2/15		11	4	7	17	23	—	49	27	22	96	85

World Championship

World Championship record									Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL
1949	Did not participate								Did not participate
1952
1956
1960
1962
1966
1970	17th–24th places	21st place	11	4	7	16	24	Squad	1966 Asian Games
1974	Did not participate								Did not participate
1978	Did not participate								Did not participate
1982	Did not qualify								1979 Asian Championship
1986	Did not participate								Did not participate
1990	Did not qualify								1989 Asian Championship
1994	Did not qualify								4	1	3	3	9
1998	First round	19th place	3	0	3	0	9	Squad	2	1	1	3	4
2002	Did not participate								Did not participate
2006	First round	21st place	5	0	5	2	15	Squad	3	3	0	9	0
2010	First round	19th place	3	1	2	5	7	Squad	6	5	1	16	7
2014	5th place match	6th place	12	7	5	26	21	Squad	3	3	0	9	0
2018	Second round	13th place	8	4	4	14	16	Squad	4	4	0	12	0
2022	Round of 16	13th place	4	2	2	7	9	Squad	2021 Asian Championship
2025	Qualified								2023 Asian Championship
2027	Future event								Future event
Total	7/20		46	18	28	70	101	—	22	17	5	52	20

World Cup

World Cup record (Defunct)
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
1965	Did not participate
1969
1977
1981
1985
1989	Did not qualify
1991	7th–12th places	11th place	8	1	7	5	23	Squad
1995	Did not qualify
1999
2003
2007
2011	Round-robin	9th place	11	5	6	16	25	Squad
2015	Round-robin	8th place	11	4	7	16	24	Squad
2019	Round-robin	8th place	11	4	7	19	25	Squad
Total	4/14		41	14	27	56	97	—

World Grand Champions Cup

Third place Fourth place

World Grand Champions record (Defunct)
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
1993	Did not qualify
1997
2001
2005
2009	Round-robin	5th place	5	1	4	8	14	Squad
2013	Round-robin	4th place	5	3	2	10	10	Squad
2017	Round-robin	3rd place	5	4	1	12	10	Squad
Total	3/7		15	8	7	30	34	—

World League

Fourth place

World League record (Defunct)									Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL
1990	Did not participate								Did not participate
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010	Did not qualify								2	0	2	0	6
2011									World Ranking
2012									1	0	1	1	3
2013	Intercontinental round	9th place	10	5	5	20	21	Squad	4	4	0	12	1
2014	3rd place match	4th place	16	7	9	28	32	Squad	Directly qualified
2015	Intercontinental round	7th place	12	6	6	25	21	Squad
2016	Intercontinental round	8th place	9	4	5	15	22	Squad
2017	Intercontinental round	11th place	9	3	6	11	23	Squad
Total	5/28		56	25	31	99	119	56	7	4	3	13	10

Nations League

Nations League record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
2018	Preliminary round	10th place	15	7	8	29	30	Squad
2019	Final round pool play	5th place	17	12	5	41	21	Squad
2021	Preliminary round	12th place	15	5	10	25	32	Squad
2022	Quarterfinals	7th place	13	7	6	24	22	Squad
2023	Preliminary round	14th place	12	2	10	16	31	Squad
2024	Preliminary round	15th place	12	2	10	14	34	Squad
2025	Qualified
Total	6/6		84	35	49	149	170	—

Asian Championship

Champions Runners up Third place Fourth place

Asian Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
1975	Did not participate
1979	Classification 5th–8th	6th place	6	3	3	12	10	Squad
1983	Did not participate
1987	9th place match	10th place	7	4	3	13	12	Squad
1989	7th place match	8th place	8	3	5	11	15	Squad
1991	7th place match	7th place	7	3	4	11	14	Squad
1993	5th place match	5th place	7	4	3	12	11	Squad
1995	Championship	4th place	7	4	3	12	13	Squad
1997	Classification 5th–8th	6th place	5	2	3	8	11	Squad
1999	Classification 5th–8th	5th place	6	4	2	13	10	Squad
2001	5th place match	5th place	6	4	2	14	10	Squad
2003	Championship	3rd place	7	5	2	16	12	Squad
2005	5th place match	6th place	5	3	2	12	10	Squad
2007	Championship	5th place	9	5	4	17	18	Squad
2009	Final	Runners-up	8	7	1	22	10	Squad
2011	Final	Champions	8	8	0	24	2	Squad
2013	Final	Champions	7	7	0	21	1	Squad
2015	Final	Runners-up	8	6	2	20	9	Squad^[a]
2017	5th place match	5th place	8	6	2	20	10	Squad^[b]
2019	Final	Champions	8	7	1	22	4	Squad
2021	Final	Champions	7	7	0	21	1	Squad
2023	Final	Runners-up	5	4	1	12	4	Squad
Total	4 Titles	20/22	139	96	43	313	187	—

Asian Games

Champions Runners up Third place Fourth place

Asian Games record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
1958	Round-robin	Runners-up	4	3	1	9	6	Squad
1962	Did not participate
1966	Final round	3rd place	8	5	3	16	14	Squad
1970	Round-robin	5th place	7	3	4	11	14	Squad
1974	3rd place match	4th place	5	2	3	7	9	Squad
1978	Did not participate
1982
1986
1990
1994	5th place match	5th place	9	5	4	16	16	Squad
1998	Did not participate
2002	Final	Runners-up	6	4	2	12	10	Squad
2006	5th place match	6th place	3	1	2	6	7	Squad
2010	Final	Runners-up	9	8	1	25	4	Squad
2014	Final	Champions	8	8	0	24	2	Squad
2018	Final	Champions	5	5	0	15	0	Squad
2022	Final	Champions	5	5	0	15	2	Squad
2026	Future event
2030
2034
Total	3 Titles	11/17	69	49	20	156	84	—

Asian Cup

Champions Runners up Fourth place

Asian Cup record (Defunct)
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
2008	Final	Champions	6	5	1	16	8	Squad
2010	Final	Champions	6	6	0	18	6	Squad
2012	Final	Runners-up	6	5	1	16	7	Squad^[a]
2014	3rd place match	4th place	6	4	2	14	9	Squad^[a]
2016	Final	Champions	6	6	0	18	5	Squad^[a]
2018	Final	Runners-up	5	4	1	14	5	Squad^[a]
2022	5th place match	5th place	5	3	2	11	8	Squad^[c]
Total	3 Titles	7/7	40	33	7	107	48	—

Other tournaments

Islamic Solidarity Games

Champions

Islamic Solidarity Games record
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
2005	Final	Champions	8	8	0	24	3	Squad
2013	Final	Champions	6	6	0	18	2	Squad^[a]
2017	Final	Champions	6	6	0	18	3	Squad^[c]
2021	Final	Champions	5	4	1	14	4	Squad^[a]
2025	Future event
Total	4 Titles	4/4	25	24	1	74	12	—

West Asian Games

Runners up

West Asian Games record (Defunct)
Year	Round	Position	GP	MW	ML	SW	SL	Squad
2005	Round-robin	Runners-up	5	4	1	14	4	Squad
Total	1/1		5	4	1	14	4	—

Central Asian Championship

2007 – Runners-up^[d]
2010 – Champions^[a]
2022 – Runners-up^[e]
2023 – Champions^[e]

Results and fixtures


Date	Location	Competition	Opponent
2025
11 Jun	Brazil	2025 Nations League	Brazil
12 Jun	Brazil	2025 Nations League	United States
13 Jun	Brazil	2025 Nations League	Slovenia
15 Jun	Brazil	2025 Nations League	Ukraine
25 Jun	Serbia	2025 Nations League	Serbia
27 Jun	Serbia	2025 Nations League	Argentina
28 Jun	Serbia	2025 Nations League	Germany
29 Jun	Serbia	2025 Nations League	Netherlands
16 Jul	Poland	2025 Nations League	Poland
17 Jul	Poland	2025 Nations League	China
19 Jul	Poland	2025 Nations League	France
20 Jul	Poland	2025 Nations League	Bulgaria
14 Sep	Philippines	2025 World Championship	Egypt
16 Sep	Philippines	2025 World Championship	Tunisia
18 Sep	Philippines	2025 World Championship	Philippines

Team

Current squad

Representing Iran at the 2024 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League

Head coach: Mauricio Motta Paes

No.	Name	Date of birth	Height	Weight	Spike	Block	2024 club
1	Mahdi Jelveh	21 May 2001	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)	85 kg (187 lb)	390 cm (150 in)	345 cm (136 in)	Olympiacos Piraeus
2	Milad Ebadipour (C)	17 October 1993	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	358 cm (141 in)	340 cm (130 in)	KS Norwid Częstochowa
5	Amir Hossein Toukhteh	9 April 2001	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	79 kg (174 lb)	373 cm (147 in)	354 cm (139 in)	Haraz Amol
7	Shahrooz Homayonfarmanesh	18 December 1989	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)	85 kg (187 lb)	325 cm (128 in)	320 cm (130 in)
8	Mohammad Reza Hazratpour	31 March 1999	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)	87 kg (192 lb)	300 cm (120 in)	290 cm (110 in)
8	Mohammad Reza Moazzen	20 September 1991	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)	75 kg (165 lb)	292 cm (115 in)	281 cm (111 in)
11	Mohammad Barbast	14 February 2002	2.05 m (6 ft 9 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	375 cm (148 in)	345 cm (136 in)	CS Dinamo București
12	Amir Hossein Esfandiar	24 January 1999	2.06 m (6 ft 9 in)	95 kg (209 lb)	355 cm (140 in)	348 cm (137 in)	Tianjin Food Group
14	Poriya Hossein Khanzadeh	1 July 2004	2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	375 cm (148 in)	355 cm (140 in)	Cucine Lube Civitanova
15	Aliasghar Mojarad	30 October 1997	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	330 cm (130 in)	310 cm (120 in)	CS Rapid București
17	Amin Esmaeilnejad	17 December 1996	2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)	93 kg (205 lb)	365 cm (144 in)	344 cm (135 in)	PGE Skra Bełchatów
18	Mohammad Taher Vadi	10 October 1989	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	72 kg (159 lb)	329 cm (130 in)	315 cm (124 in)	Foolad Sirjan
21	Meisam Salehi	17 November 1998	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)	89 kg (196 lb)	383 cm (151 in)	355 cm (140 in)	Fenerbahçe
24	Javad Karimi	1 March 1998	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)	104 kg (229 lb)	330 cm (130 in)	310 cm (120 in)	Minas Tênis Clube
25	Mobin Nasri	7 January 2003	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)	82 kg (181 lb)	373 cm (147 in)	355 cm (140 in)	Warta Zawiercie
49	Morteza Sharifi	27 May 1999	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	83 kg (183 lb)	340 cm (130 in)	320 cm (130 in)	Galatasaray S.K.

Head coaches

Note: The following list may not be complete.

A Team

Name	From	To	notes
Sardar Nasrollahkhan^[3]	1958		1958 Asian Games Runners-up
Fereydoon Sharifzadeh	1958	1963
Hossein Jabbarzadegan	1964	1966	1966 Asian Games 3rd place
Miloslav Ejem	1970	1972
Tadaee Korada	1974		1974 Asian Games 4th place
Park Sung	1979
Yadollah Kargarpisheh	1979	1981
Farough Fakhredini	1987
Masoud Salehieh	1987	1989
Hossein Ali Mehranpour	1989	1991
Mohammad Heidarkhan	1991
Ivans Bugajenkovs	1991	1993	Acted as head coach from 1991 to 1993 and as the general technical manager of all age groups from 1991 to 2007.
Fumihiko Matsumoto	1994
Masoud Salehieh	1995		1995 Asian Championship 4th place
Mehdi Saberpour	1997
Fumihiko Matsumoto	1998
Mostafa Karkhaneh	1999	2001
Hossein Ali Mehranpour	2001
Park Ki-won	2002	2005	2002 Asian Games Runners-up 2003 Asian Championship 3rd place
Milorad Kijac	2006
Zoran Gajić	2007	2008
Hossein Maadani	2008	2010	2008 Asian Cup Champions 2009 Asian Championship Runners-up 2010 Asian Cup Champions 2010 Asian Games Runners-up
Julio Velasco	2011	2014	2011 Asian Championship Champions 2013 Asian Championship Champions 2013 World Grand Champions Cup 4th place
Slobodan Kovač	2014	2015	2014 World League 4th place 2014 World Championship 6th place 2014 Asian Games Champions
Raúl Lozano	2016		2016 Olympic Games 5th place
Igor Kolaković	2017	2020	2017 World Grand Champions Cup 3rd place 2018 Asian Games Champions 2019 Nations League 5th place 2019 Asian Championship Champions 2020 Olympic Games Qualification
Vladimir Alekno	2020	2021	2020 Olympic Games 9th place
Behrouz Ataei	2021	2023	2021 Asian Championship Champions 2023 Asian Championship Runners-up 2022 Asian Games Champions
Maurício Paes	2024
Peyman Akbari	2024
Roberto Piazza	2024

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Head Coach	Behrouz Ataei
Assistant Coach	Alireza Tolookian Paweł Woicki
Analyzer	Hossein Khouriani
Fitness Trainer	Janas Wojciech
Doctor	Reza Gholipour
U19 Coach	Mohammad Vakili
Team Manager	Akbar Mohammadi

Last updated: 17 July 2023
Source: ^{[citation needed]}

B Team

Name	From–To	notes
Peyman Akbari	2010	2010 Central Asian Zone Championship Champions
Mohammad Vakili	2012	2012 Asian Cup Runners-up
Hossein Maadani	2013	2013 Islamic Solidarity Games Champions
Peyman Akbari	2014–2015	2014 Asian Cup 4th place 2015 Asian Championship Runners-up
Nasser Shahnazi^[4]	2016	2016 Asian Cup Champions
Juan Manuel Cichello	2017
Behrouz Ataei	2018	2018 Asian Cup Runners-up
Azim Jazideh	2022	2021 Islamic Solidarity Games Champions

Stadium

The team's home arena are Azadi Indoor Stadium, Azadi Volleyball Hall, Rezazadeh Stadium and Ghadir Stadium.

Kit providers

The table below shows the history of kit providers for the Iran national volleyball team.

Period	Kit provider
2000–2008	Asics Mikasa Fuerza Mizuno Ideal
2008–	Merooj

Sponsorship

Primary sponsors include: main sponsors like MCI and Tourism Bank, Refah Stores other sponsors: Roamer.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Iran played with their "B" team.
^ Iran played with their "U23" team.
^ ^a ^b Iran played with their "U21" team.
^ Iran played with their "Club" team.
^ ^a ^b Iran played with their "U19" team.

References

^ "FIVB Senior World Ranking - Men". FIVB website. FIVB. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
^ "Brief History of Iran Men's Volleyball". I.R Iran VolleyBall Foundation. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
^ "خارجی‌های والیبال؛ از سردار تا ولاسکو". Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
^ "کسب سهمیه المپیک والیبال قطعی است".

(in Persian) Asian Volleyball Championship
(in Persian) Volleyball at the Asian Games
(in Persian) Iran Volleyball History

External links

[B_team-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Iran played with their "B" team.

[U23_team-4] Iran played with their "U23" team.

[U21_team-5] Iran played with their "U21" team.

[Club_team-6] Iran played with their "Club" team.

[U19_team-7] Iran played with their "U19" team.

[FIVB_ranking-1] "FIVB Senior World Ranking - Men". FIVB website. FIVB. Retrieved 26 July 2022.

[2] "Brief History of Iran Men's Volleyball". I.R Iran VolleyBall Foundation. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2021.

[8] "خارجی‌های والیبال؛ از سردار تا ولاسکو". Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2015.

[9] "کسب سهمیه المپیک والیبال قطعی است".

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