Nigeria finish 8th as Tunisia win African Volleyball title

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Nigeria finished eighth at the 2026 CAVB Men’s African Nations Volleyball Championship after their campaign ended with a 3-0 defeat to Ghana, while hosts Tunisia were crowned African champions on Friday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

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Nigeria’s seventh-place playoff defeat to Ghana on Thursday brought an end to a campaign in which the team recorded two victories and three defeats, falling short of the top three places required to secure qualification for the 2027 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship.

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The Nigerians had reached the quarter-finals after progressing from the group stage, but Morocco ended their medal hopes with a narrow 3-2 victory in the last eight.

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Nigeria won the opening set 25-20 before Morocco fought back to take the next two. The Nigerians levelled the contest by winning the fourth set 26-24, but Morocco prevailed 15-12 in the deciding set to advance to the semi-finals.

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That defeat sent Nigeria into the classification bracket, where they subsequently lost 3-1 to Rwanda before Ghana completed their campaign with a straight-sets victory in the seventh-place playoff.

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The eighth-place finish leaves Nigeria outside the three African positions allocated for the 2027 World Championship, with their continental campaign ending without a place in the medal matches.

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At the top of the competition, Tunisia defeated Cameroon 3-0 in Friday’s final at El Menzah Sports Palace to retain the African title and secure the continent’s qualification place for the men’s volleyball tournament at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

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Cameroon, who had already secured a place at the 2027 World Championship by reaching the final, settled for silver, while Morocco and Algeria contested the bronze-medal match for Africa’s remaining World Championship ticket.

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For Nigeria, the tournament provided another opportunity to compete against some of Africa’s strongest sides, but their quarter-final exit and subsequent classification defeats ultimately left them eighth in the final standings.

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