Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland as host countries were directly qualified. The eight best placed teams at the 2019 edition also gained direct entries into the tournament.
26 teams had registered for participation but Denmark later withdrew due to restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] So, 25 teams competed for the remaining 12 places at the final tournament.
Qualified as hosts for the 2021 European Championship
Format
There being seven pools of either three or four teams each, the winners of each pool and the 5 best runners-up qualified for the 2021 European Championship. The pools were played in a double round-robin tournaments format officially from 30 August 2020 to 16 May 2021, according to the CEV web site. Since there was a different number of teams across the seven pools, the results of the matches played with the teams finishing last in the pools of four were discarded in order to determine the five best runners-up across all pools.
Pools composition
Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their CEV European Ranking as of 1 January 2020.[3][4] But, Denmark withdrew after the draw. Rankings are shown in brackets.
If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.
Match won 3โ0 or 3โ1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
Match won 3โ2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
Results
The winners in each pool and the top five of the second ranked teams qualified for the 2021 European Championship.