After a 2025 full of efforts and successes, there is another title up for grabs for Prosecco DOC A.Carraro Imoco Conegliano, which will close the calendar year by playing the FIVB Club World Championship in São Paulo, Brazil, from 9 to 14 December. The Panthers will play in the top intercontinental competition by virtue of the success achieved in the CEV Champions League which consecrated them European champions in Istanbul on May 4th.
SPORTS HALL
All matches of the 2025 Club World Cup will be played at the Mercado Livre Arena, a historic facility in Pacaembu, a district of São Paulo. It is played in Brazil, in the second country in the world ranking of women’s volleyball, whose national team won bronze at the World Championships in Thailand and at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The three matches of the group stage of the Prosecco DOC A.Carraro Imoco have already been sold out for a few days.
DEPARTURE
The team will start in full with its 14 players from Marco Polo airport in Venice at 18.45 tomorrow, Saturday 6 December. It will take 13 hours to reach São Paulo: after a stopover in Madrid, the Panthers will land in Brazil at Gru Airport. Thanks to the hospitality of SAVE and the comforts offered by Lagardère, both partners of the yellow-blue club, players and staff will cross the ocean with maximum comfort.
HISTORY
It will be the fifth participation of the yellow-blues in the intercontinental event, the Panthers are reigning champions by virtue of the success achieved in China, in Hangzhou, in 2024. Prosecco DOC Imoco has 3 titles and a final played in the previous four editions. In 2019 in Shaoxing, China, the tie-break victory in the semi-final against Vakifbank Istanbul was legendary, followed by success in the final against Eczacibasi; in 2021 Wolosz and her teammates lost only the final against the Turks from Vakif in Ankara, the following year they took revenge in Antalya with the second world title. In the roll of honour of the competition in first place is Vakifbank Istanbul with 4 successes, behind is Eczacibasi at 3 with Conegliano, then 7 other teams with a title in the trophy cabinet, including Teodora Ravenna.
BEGINNERS
There will be four Panthers debuting in the competition: the libero Serena Scognamillo, the setter Jenna Ewert, the middle blocker Matilde Munarini and the spiker Fatoumatta Sillah.
WINNERS
All of the club’s successes in the competition (3) bear the signature of the columns Asia Wolosz and Moki De Gennaro. Isabelle Haak also has three successes in her trophy cabinet and is the reigning MVP, but she won a title as an “opponent” with Vakif in 2021; with her there was also Gabi, at 2 victories, while Zhu Ting is at 3, 2 with Vakif and one in Conegliano; Marina Lubian is a two-time world champion in yellow and blue (2022 and 2024), while Merit Adigwe, Cristina Chirichella and Sarah Fahr have a title in the trophy cabinet. Nika Daalderop has never won the competition, but she crossed paths with the Panthers in the 2022 World Cup in Antalya with the Vakif jersey in the final, while last year with Milan she finished in third place.
MEDIA TV
All Club World Cup matches will be streamed live on DAZN and Volleyballworld.tv (by subscription). Live updates of the matches, interviews of the protagonists, exclusive content and much more will be available on all Imoco Volley social profiles in real time.
ITALIAN DATES AND TIME MATCHES
The Panthers will make their debut in the competition with the first day of group B
-Tuesday 9 December at 17.30 against the Americans of the Orlando Valkyries,
-Wednesday 10 December at 21 pm we return to the field against the Egyptian Zamalek Sporting Club
-Thursday 11 December at 17.30 the group ends by challenging the Brazilians of Dentil Praia Clube.
The local time zone is four hours behind that of Italy.
The semi-finals will be played on Saturday 13 December at 17.30 and 20.30, Sunday 14 December the finals for third and first place at 17.30 and 20.30.
THE OTHER OPPONENTS
The other European team present in São Paulo is Savino del Bene Scandicci, qualified as finalists of the last CEV Champions League. Italy will bring two more representatives to the Club World Cup. In group A, Osasco Sao Cristovao Saude, the home team, the Peruvians of Alianza Lima and the Kazakhs of Zhetysu VC will also play for qualification.
THE STARS ON THE PITCH
There is trepidation and enthusiasm in Brazil for Gabi’s return to his homeland, this time with the Conegliano shirt. The Carioca spiker will be supported and followed by thousands of fans during the competition, as well as the stars of Praia: Macris, the Pavao sisters, the ex-Scandicci Adenizia and the immortal Carol Gattaz in the center. To charge the host of Sao Cristovao there is the Argentine Bianca Cugno, an emerging opposite of world volleyball, and the libero Camila Brait, a veteran for years in the Brazilian national team. Looking at the Prosecco DOC group, the Orlando Valkyries play in the American Major League Volleyball and field the setter Guedpard, director of Thailand, the Serbian libero Teodora Pusic and Courtney Schwan, a former acquaintance of the Italian league. Scandicci will bring its roster and enrich the competition with its stars including Ognjenovic, Antropova, Bosetti and Skinner.
COACH DANIELE SANTARELLI STATEMENTS: “WHAT A THRILL TO PLAY A TOURNAMENT LIKE THIS IN BRAZIL, WE WILL FEEL THE PUSH FROM CONEGLIANO”
“It will be the first time in Brazil for a World Cup, a tournament that we care about very much and that we have been preparing for months. It is a competition different from all the others, in terms of rhythm and environment, we have managed to bring home the trophy 3 times and it would be great to be able to reconfirm ourselves. It will be a special tournament: there are competitive teams like Scandicci, the Brazilians who will have the support of their fans who are very hot there and the American team from Orlando. However, we don’t hide, compared to the Italian teams the technical rate is different, the Europeans in these cases always have the favor of the prediction, but the unknowns are around the corner and we will have to be ready for any eventuality.
We start against Orlando at the top of the group, a new team that offers few indications before starting a great competition like the one that will see us engaged from Tuesday onwards, we will have to pay attention to their strengths.
We will face Praia in the group, a team that we have already found at the World Cup in the past, we know them and we know their value and the experience of their players. The calendar will be very busy and we hope to play all 5 scheduled appointments, we will have to manage the match days well to find energy from all the players in the squad.
We have been preparing for some time to give our best, we hope to get to the final, but we have to think game by game and do our best. From an environmental point of view, we can’t wait to meet the warmth of the Brazilian fans who are waiting for us in São Paulo, we will have the opportunity to have fun with those who will follow us live and we count on the Gabi-effect to have a good following. But I don’t forget the people of Conegliano and the club’s sponsors who will follow the World Cup from a distance, dribbling the time zone and weekly commitments to cheer us on. We already thank them in view of tomorrow’s departure, we will give our best for them too”.
CAPTAIN JOANNA WOLOSZ: “THE WORLD CUP IS A FASCINATING EVENT”
How are you preparing for the World Cup?: “The team is very excited, we come from a series of good results in the league and the Champions League, but now everything changes, we will go to play on another continent against teams that come from all over the world with different styles of play and characteristics, it will be interesting and stimulating”
You are reigning champions, aim to reconfirm yourselves: “The goal is to go all the way, get to the final and then play for it, maybe with the other Italian team, Scandicci, who are favorites in the other group. We know it won’t be easy, we play many games one after the other and it will be important that we are all focused and performing every day. The World Cup is always a beautiful and fascinating event, historically in recent years it is a tournament that has given us great joy and satisfaction, it would be nice to give the club and our fans this trophy again to close 2025 on a high note that has brought us so many good things. In Brazil there will be great enthusiasm for this tournament, we can’t wait to start and live this new experience”.
It’s a tournament unlike any other, with potentially five games in a week to play: “Yes, it is a completely different event from the others, it is played at an intense pace, practically every day a bit like what happens when there are national team tournaments, it will be very important to recover energy between one match and another and the contribution of the whole team will be fundamental, everyone will be needed. However, we have the experience to manage the situation and a very deep roster that will allow us to absorb these rhythms while maintaining our quality of play, that’s what we have to do. We leave tomorrow for this long journey to Brazil very confident, it will be a busy week and we will try to give our best”.