ITALY vs. FRANCE | FINAL - Men's European Championship 2003

The Volleyball European Championship Men 2003 was held from September 5 to 14 in Germany. The Games were held in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Leipzig. Italy won their fifth title.

First, a preliminary round was held, in which the twelve teams were divided into two groups of six. The top two teams in each group reached the semi-finals. The third-placed and fourth played for places five to eight.

For the first time the venues were changed during the preliminary round. The first matches in Group A took place in Leipzig and the Group B first played in Karlsruhe. After half of the first round there was a change, so that all teams could play in both cities.

Germany played with Eugen Bakumovski, Ralph Bergmann, Frank Dehne, Wolfgang Kuck, Till Dear, Marco Liefke, Christian Pampel, Jochen Schoeps, Mark Siebeck, Norbert Walter, Georg Wiebel and Ilya Wiederschein.

Germany was set as host. The top five teams in the European championship in 2001 were also automatically qualified. These were Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslavia) as the defending champion, Italy, the Second, the Third Czech Republic, Russia and the Fourth Fifth Poland.

Sixteen teams played in May 2002 and a year later by a further six places. The matches of the four groups of four each were played in two tournaments in one weekend. The group winners and the two best runners-up to the final round.