When most people think of men’s and women’s professional volleyball teams on an international level (indoor and beach volleyball), the first countries that often come to mind are the United States and Brazil.
Some of the other countries that also rank high on the official FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) table are Poland, Italy and Japan (men’s teams), Turkey, and Serbia (women’s teams). That’s not forgetting China, Cuba, the Netherlands, France, Slovenia, Belgium, Finland, Russia, and Argentina, to name a few.
Very few think of African nations. However, volleyball is undergoing a transformation in several African nations and is witnessing a surge in popularity regarding active participation and spectatorship from the grassroots level to professional volleyball.
With that said, let’s dive straight in and take a look at three of the biggest volleyball leagues on the African continent that every volleyball fan should know about.
Is volleyball popular in Africa?
There are 54 nations in Africa, and in most of these countries, volleyball isn’t even in the top five or ten most popular played sports.
Soccer (football), rugby, cricket, long-distance running, handball, boxing, and various other traditional sports like Boersport, including foot racing, climbing the slippery pole, folk wrestling matches, and other traditional sports in certain regions, are more popular than volleyball.
However, volleyball is extremely popular in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, which have the continent’s most dominant men’s volleyball leagues. These same two countries and Kenya are also home to Africa’s most dominant women’s volleyball teams. Volleyball is also popular in Algeria and several other African nations.
The official African continental governing body for volleyball is the African Volleyball Confederation (CAVB – French: Confédération Africaine de Volleyball), which is headquartered in Rabat, Morocco, and has 54 member associations. The CAVB parent organization is the FIVB (the International Volleyball Federation).
In recent years, statistics show that more people than ever enjoy playing and watching volleyball in Africa, and more people than ever have taken up online betting on major volleyball competitions that take place in Africa and across the globe.
According to reports, volleyball is now the fourth most-watched sport in the world.
Some of the reasons for the surge in popularity in recent years include growing participation, better youth development and college game exposure, more lucrative sponsorship deals and increased marketing of the sport, and widespread coverage of major international events and top-flight domestic leagues on local television channels and today’s most popular online sports streaming platforms.
What are the three biggest volleyball leagues in Africa?
There are several major volleyball cometitions in Africa, some domestic volleyball team leagues and others national team competitions. The three biggest volleyball competitions in Africa today are the following:
- African Volleyball Clubs Championship – widely regarded as Africa’s most important men’s club volleyball competition, organized by CAVB
- African Men’s Volleyball Championship – the continent’s official competition for senior men’s African national volleyball teams, also organized by CAVB
- African Women’s Volleyball Championship – the continent’s official competition for senior women’s African national volleyball teams, also organized by CAVB
Honourable mentions include a club competition organized by CAVB called the African Volleyball Cup Winners’ Cup, the Women’s African Cup Winners’ Cup (CAVB), the Tunisian Men’s Volleyball League, the Egypt League, and the Tunisian Men’s Volleyball League, to name just a few.
Egypt is Africa’s most successful volleyball nation, with the most titles at major events, followed by Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, and Kenya. At the domestic level, some of Africa’s most successful volleyball clubs are Al Ahly SC, CS Sfaxien, and Zamalek SC.
You also have Club Africain VB, ES Sahel VC, GS Pétroliers VB, Tala’ea El-Gaish SC, NA Hussein Dey VB, and MS Boussalem. Today’s biggest African volleyball nations participate in the African Nations Volleyball Championship and the African Beach Games.
A total of 15 teams compete annually in the Men’s African Nations Volleyball Championship, and 12 compete in the Women’s African Nations Volleyball Championship. Also, 27 African countries took part in the 2020 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, and several other countries competed at the 2023 African Games, and a total of 12 teams competed at the Women’s African Nations Volleyball Championship, which also saw Mali, Burkina Faso, and Lesotho make their debuts at this event.
Final thoughts
Volleyball will undoubtedly continue to grow in Africa, and the national teams will continue to improve on the global stage.
The upcoming professional volleyball calendar for 2025 to 2028 looks packed and will include all key stakeholders, such as commercial partners, key media rights holders, major national leagues, national federations, continental confederations, coaches, and athletes.
International volleyball events on the official Volleyball Calendar over the next three years have been prioritized, and some of the biggest upcoming events you may want to add to your diary are the Olympic Games, the biennial World Championships, and the Volleyball Nations League (VNL).
