The Volleyball Nations League arrives in Quebec

A new major sporting competition will take place in Quebec. The prestigious Volleyball Nations League will stop in the Old Capital to launch its next season.

Canadian volleyball players will have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the leaders of their sport from June 11 to 15, at the Videotron Center, a first in the province. The agreement announced Tuesday is spread over three years.

The Canadian team is one of the few elected in this very select circuit bringing together only 18 of the 222 teams affiliated with the international federation. Just the cream of the crop.

The scenario predicts that volleyball players from six national teams, including those of the Canadian team, will perform in Quebec in 2025 and 2027. Women's teams will compete there in 2026.

It will be an extremely tough competition like we have never seen in Quebecaffirms with enthusiasm the president of the local organizing committee, Gilles Lépine, who largely contributed to the arrival of the main volleyball circuit.

For very, very high level team sport events in Quebec, I am thinking of handball which came to PEPS [de l’Université Laval] for preliminary matches, in 1976, I am thinking of the World Ice Hockey Championship, in 2008. And probably the Nations League is part of this podium.

The French Olympic champions, who also took home honors last season of the Nations League, will be in action in the provincial capital, along with the Germans, Argentines, Bulgarians and Italians. Four matches are on the program for each of the selections.

Of the six teams who will compete in Quebec, five participated in the Olympic tournament in France.

The Canadian selection competing at the Paris Games was unable to progress through the group phase, in which the French team was, precisely. Excluded from the quarter-finals, the maple leaf team finally finished in 10th place.

People will be really impressed, this team gave us incredible emotions. They are capable of playing against the best in the world, they have proven it on many, many occasionsunderlines Gilles Lépine, who recalls in passing the Olympic qualification worthy ofan almost Hollywood scenario.

A team that has everything you need, experience, determination and players, first of all on a physical level […] and also very skillful. It's not enough to have greatness, you have to have this finesse on a tactical and personal level.

The capital of volleyball

Quebec is the second Canadian city to host a Nations League competition, after Ottawa, the scene of a women's tournament at TD Place for several years. No less than 7,042 people came there last year to watch the clash between the Americans and the Canadians.

The president of the local organizing committee now hopes to surpass this mark. The goal is set at around 10,000 people for a Canadiens game.

The participation of people, among others at the Rouge et Or at Laval University, we have the largest crowds in Canada. We recently had 2,500 people come for a university volleyball match.indicates, with happiness, Gilles Lépine.

Gilles Lépine, one of the leading figures of volleyball in Quebec, is working to develop this sport by attracting various events, as was the case in 2023 with the NORCECA Championship.

The big, big success obtained at the continental tournament laid the foundations for the arrival of the League of Nations in the Old Capital, according to the main person concerned, who could not have wished for a best business card.

Quebec is becoming a popular and interesting location for Canadian volleyball. Currently, we are certainly the capital of volleyball with events like thisassures Gilles Lépine.