Tasnim – Iran lost to France in Rouen, France on Friday at its opening match in the 2018 Volleyball Nations League.


Igor Kolakovic’s men were defeated against the host 3-1 (25-20, 24-26, 25-20, 25-17), where Earvin Ngapeth scored 18 points and Iran’s Amir Ghafour claimed 18 points to his name and Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi managed four blocks.

Iran will play Australia on Saturday.

The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League is the inaugural edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League, a new annual men's international volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams that replaces the former World League in the international calendar.

The competition is held from May 25 to July 8 in 22 host cities.

The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into four pools of four teams at each week and compete five weeks long, with a total of 120 matches.

The top five teams after the preliminary round join the host of the final round to compete in the final round.

The relegation takes in consideration only the 4 challenger teams. The last ranked challenger team plays the promotion play-off against the Challenger Cup winners. The winners of the play-off will qualify for the next edition as a challenger team.