Tunisia without key player for World Championships

Wassim Ben Tara (photo c/o CAVB)

Tunisia is set to participate in the upcoming FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship without a key cog.

Wassim Ben Tara, who led the African powerhouse in scoring during the 2020 Olympics has been ruled out of the competition due to prior commitments.

Without Wassim, the team will rely on the likes of Hamza Nagga and Elves Karamosli to keep itself afloat in Pool A alongside the Philippines, Iran and Egypt.

Even with his absence, Tunisia remains to be a tough nut to crack as a top-50 team, having won eleven African Men's Volleyball titles, with their latest coming in 2021, as Wassim, Hamza, and Elves proved to be an unstoppable trio to retain their crown.

Unfortunately, their hopes for a successful title defense fell short in the quarterfinals against Cameroon in the last edition back in 2023.

In between, they managed to make the Round of 16 in the last edition of the Men's World Championship, losing to eventual finalists Poland.

Even with the stumble, Tunisia is still a force to reckon with, and to highlight it, they went out and hired Camillo Placi as their head coach. They would follow that up with a four-month camp that started back in May.

All of their preparations will be capped off by serving as the opening match for the 2025 edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship against hosts the Philippines, which takes place on September 12 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.

They will resume pool play against Iran on September 16, whilst concluding pool play against rivals Egypt a couple of days later, all of which will be at the same venue.

The Philippines-Tunisia matchup is the lone match scheduled, as it will be preceded by a first-ever tournament opening ceremony, which will feature performances from BOYNEXTDOOR and Karencitta. First serve is slated to take place at around 730pm.

Tickets for the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, which is supported by PNVF Official Partners PLDT, Mwell, Meralco, ⁠Rebisco, Akari, Nuvali, PNVF official suppliers Asics, Senoh, official ball ⁠Mikasa, official television partner Cignal, Honda, BMW, and supported by the PSC and POC, are available through https://www.philippineswch2025.com/.