Asian Games 2026 volleyball: full schedule, squads, venues and live streaming
Volleyball at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, will begin preliminary matches on September 16, ahead of the Games' official opening on September 19. The volleyball competitions are scheduled to run through October 3.
Volleyball was first included in the Asian Games in 1958 in Tokyo and made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Games, also held in Japan. Japan has won 14 gold medals across the men’s and women’s competitions at the Asian Games. India's men's team won bronze in 1958, earned a silver in the next edition and took bronze again in 1986. India finished on the podium for the first time in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Men’s Cup earlier this year and have beaten a few top sides.
The men’s tournament will feature 16 nations split into four groups of four, while the women’s event will include 14 nations arranged in two groups of four and two groups of three. India’s women’s team have not qualified for the event, and the men’s team will hope for a strong finish in Aichi-Nagoya. Both competitions will have three days of preliminaries followed by a rest day and three days of knockout rounds. The women's preliminaries begin on September 16 with the finals scheduled for September 22; the men's preliminary rounds begin on September 27 with the final on October 3.
Matches will be staged at the Okazaki Central Park General Gymnasium and Komaki Park Arena in Aichi Prefecture. The published programme contains daily pool fixtures with specific start times, classification matches and knockout rounds. The timetable includes slots for quarter-finals, semi-finals and placement matches for positions such as 5th–8th and 9th–16th.
India's announced outside hitters are Chirag, Amit, Joel Benjamin Jebaraj and Erin Varghese. The opposite hitters named are Jerome Vinith Charles and Muhammad Nihal Chatham Kulangara. Middle blockers listed are John Joseph Eanthungal Joseph, Ashwal Rai and Shikhar Singh, with setters Muthusamy Appavu and Om Vasant Lad.
Sample pool fixtures in the published programme include Pool B – China vs Philippines at 9:30 AM, Pool C – Mongolia vs Thailand at 12:30 PM and Pool A – Japan vs Nepal at 3:50 PM. The schedule also lists quarter-final slots at 6:30 AM, 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 3:50 PM, and placement matches such as Bronze Medal Match at 12:30 PM and Gold Medal Match at 3:50 PM. Iran (men) and China (women) are identified as the defending volleyball champions at the Asian Games.
The live telecast will be available on the Sony Sports Network with streaming on the Sony Liv app and website. Women's preliminary matches start on September 16 and men's preliminary matches commence on September 27, with both competitions scheduled to conclude by October 3.
