Italian giants for Tours and Montpellier, Polish champions for Levallois-Paris in the Champions League

The four French clubs competing in the Champions League for the 2025-2026 season know their opponents and, as expected, the draw has offered them some tough competition. In the men's competition, French champions Tours and Montpellier ( who received an invitation after finishing first in the regular season) will have the formidable honor of facing two of the biggest clubs in the prestigious Italian Championship.

The formula remains the same as in previous years: the first in each group will qualify directly for the quarter-finals, the second in each group and the best third-placed team will play the play-offs. The mission promises to be very difficult for the Tours team in Group A. Between December 9 and February 18, 2026, they will challenge the reigning Italian champion and 2024 European champion Trente ( who has just recruited the French team's point guard Théo Faure ), ZB Ankara, the Turkish champion guided by the French team's pillar Trevor Clévenot, and a club from the preliminary rounds.

The same huge adversity for Montpellier in Group D against the Italians Civitanova (with the young Bleu Noa Duflos-Rossi), the Poles of Warsaw, where the double Olympic champion Kevin Tillie plays, and the Belgians of Louvain.

In the women's competition, the French champions from Levallois-Paris have been handed arguably the weakest group, eluding the Italian and Turkish giants. But the Mariannes will still have to outdo themselves between November 25 and February 4, 2026, to hope to qualify against the Polish champions from Rzeszow (coached by Les Bleues coach Cesar Hernandez), the German team from Schwerin, and a qualifier. Last season, they failed to win a single Champions League match, notably suffering two defeats against Schwerin.

Le Cannet has also been invited by the European Federation (CEV) to participate in the second preliminary round of the Champions League after the disappearance of Nantes and Aix-Venelles , who had overtaken them in the Championship. Between November 4 and 13, the Côte d'Azur players will face the winner of the duel between the Macedonians of Kisela Voda and the Bosnians of Gacko, an adversity that seems within their capabilities. In the event of qualification, the Volero would join a group of death, which includes the Italians of Scandicci, finalists last year, the Turkish team of Vakifbank Istanbul, semi-finalists, and the Romanians of Alba Blaj.

The draw for the round of 32 of the CEV Cup (C2) and the Challenge Cup (C3) has also been made. In the men's C2 (December 9 - January 8, 2026), Poitiers will challenge Panathinaikos while Tourcoing will face the winner of the round of 32 between Maaseik (Belgium) and Craiova (Romania). In the women's competition, Mulhouse will face Serbian side Ub and Vandoeuvre-Nancy will face Sporting Portugal (November 25 - December 4).

The only French club involved in the men's Challenge Cup (due to the financial difficulties of many clubs, there will be no representative from France in the women's C3), Chaumont will face the winner of the duel between the Greeks of Syros and the Danes of Nordenskov in the last 16 (December 9 - January 8, 2026).