Poland spends December hosting rather than travelling. Two international tournaments land in the same corner of the country, and between them they occupy almost every day from the start of the month to the weekend before Christmas. The volleyball comes first in importance if not in date: the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship is played from 15 to 20 December across Sosnowiec, Katowice and Częstochowa, all inside the Silesian Voivodeship, and it is the third time Poland has staged it.

How The Volleyball Week Works

Eight clubs play sixteen matches. The pool phase runs from Tuesday 15 to Thursday 17 December at two venues at once — Pool A at Arena Sosnowiec, Pool B at Arena Katowice, two matches per venue per day. The top two from each pool move to Częstochowa. Friday 18 December is a rest day, the semi-finals are at the DMD Arena on Saturday 19 December, and the bronze and gold matches follow there on Sunday 20 December. Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia arrive as European and world champions after sweeping Osaka Bluteon in last year’s final for a third world title, and open against the Brazilian champions Sada Cruzeiro on 15 December at 20:30 in Katowice.

Where To Watch

Volleyball in Poland is a free-to-air sport, which is unusual anywhere else and central to why the audience exists: Polsat Sport carries the club championship, and the handball runs on TVP Sport. That combination means the whole of December can be followed without a subscription, which is not true of the Ekstraklasa. Operator streaming is a separate matter and is shown per country in the table below.

The Handball Tournament Ends In Katowice

The Women’s EHF EURO runs from 3 to 20 December. Poland are in Group E in Katowice with France, the Faroe Islands and Ukraine; the main round splits between Poland and Romania; and the semi-finals and final are back in Katowice on 18 and 20 December. For three weeks the home team plays in front of a home crowd, and the tournament finishes in the same building it started in. It is the closest thing Polish sport has had to a home major in several years.

Two Names In The News This Week

Tomasz Fornal. The outside hitter was named Most Valuable Player of the 2026 Volleyball Nations League after Poland beat the United States 3-2 in the final in Ningbo on 2 August, defending the title. He has since returned to the domestic league: the move to the Polish champions Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie was confirmed by the club on 15 June, ending a spell in Turkey in which he won the championship, the cup and the super cup and reached a Champions League bronze. He has been in the Zawiercie line-up through the opening weeks of the season, with matches on 31 October, 4 November and 8 November.

Perugia. The holders are the reason the Częstochowa final weekend has a favourite at all. A club arriving as both European and world champion is rare, and the draw has put them against the Brazilian champions on the opening night rather than saving it for the knockout rounds.

What To Expect

The practical shape of the Polish December is two tournaments stacked rather than spread. Handball occupies the first half and ends on 20 December; volleyball occupies 15 to 20 December and ends on the same day. The overlap is six days in which two international tournaments are being played within an hour’s drive of each other, and the one weekend to clear is 19 and 20 December, when both reach their finals.