Women's European Volleyball Championship begins on Tuesday

The Women's European Volleyball Championship 2023 starts on Tuesday, with 24 nations competing to be crowned the best in Europe.

The tournament will be hosted by four countries: Belgium, Italy, Germany and Estonia. The Top Sport Hall in Ghent will host the Group A matches, while Palais 12 in Brussels will host part of the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, as well as the semi-finals and the final.

For Belgium's Yellow Tigers, the tournament starts on Thursday with a match against Hungary. They will then face Slovenia, Ukraine, Poland and Serbia. The top four in each group will advance to the next round.

Belgian coaches

Two other Belgians will be taking part in the tournament. Vital Heynen, who won bronze as the German men's coach at the 2014 World Cup, took over as coach of Germany's women last year. Emile Rousseaux has been coaching France since 2018 and recently won the Challengers Cup.

Italy are the defending champions after winning the tournament in 2021. Serbia were runners-up that year, while Turkey finished third. Belgium will be hoping to do better this year than their 14th place finish in 2021.

^{© BELGA PHOTO VIRGINIE LEFOUR}