ASportIndependent states

Volleyball

A fast team game played over a net — Türkiye's "Sultans of the Net" are among the strongest teams in the world today.

In volleyball two teams of six try to ground the ball in the opponents' court over a net; each team may touch the ball no more than three times. Beach volleyball is played on sand by pairs.

History

Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, USA, who first called it "mintonette". The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) was founded in Paris in 1947. Volleyball entered the Olympic programme in Tokyo in 1964, and beach volleyball in Atlanta in 1996.

Major competitions

The Olympic Games, the World Championships (men since 1949, women since 1952), the Nations League (since 2018), the European Championships, the CEV Champions League and the Club World Championship.

Volleyball in the Turkic world

Türkiye's women's team — the "Sultans of the Net" — won both the Nations League and the European Championship in 2023, finished fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics and took silver after reaching the final of the 2025 World Championship. The team had also won gold at the first European Games in Baku in 2015.

Turkish clubs dominate European volleyball: VakıfBank has won the CEV Champions League many times, while Fenerbahçe (2010) and Eczacıbaşı (2015, 2016) have been club world champions. Azerbaijan's Rabita Baku won the women's Club World Championship in 2011, and Baku co-hosted the 2017 Women's European Championship.

Famous Turkic volleyball players

Ebrar Karakurt, Zehra Güneş, Eda Erdem Dündar, Naz Aydemir Akyol, Gizem Örge and Neslihan Demir Darnel.

Sources

Updated: October 11, 2026