In January of this year, a partnership agreement between Suntory Sunbirds Osaka and Perugia (Italy) was announced, along with the holding of an exhibition match at Ariake Arena on Tuesday, October 7th and Wednesday, October 8th, and details were revealed this month.
The tournament name is "Qoo10 presents World Challenge Series 2025 Suntory Sunbirds Osaka vs Sir Safety Perugia."
The matches will start at 7pm and will be broadcast on Fuji TV CS and streamed on FOD on both days. On Tuesday the 7th only, the matches will be broadcast on Fuji TV terrestrial TV and streamed on TVer.
The ticket price is noteworthy.
There are 14 types of regular tickets, ranging from 5,000 yen to 200,000 yen.
To be honest, 200,000 yen is already quite expensive, but this time, tickets with a premium experience tour are available for only 12 people per day, and the price is a whopping 1 million yen.
There's no doubt that this is an extremely aggressive price, but considering the current popularity of Ishikawa Yuki and Takahashi Ai, this will likely sell out quickly as well.
For detailed tournament information, broadcast information, and ticket information, please check the official tournament website below.
https://wcseries2025.jp/
The members of both teams for the 2025/26 season are summarized on the pages below.
Suntory is the strongest team in Japan, having won the first SV League championship in the 2024/25 season and also won the Emperor's Cup.
Perugia is a strong club that regularly reaches the top four in Italy, and although they finished third in the Italian league in the 2024/25 season and missed out on the title, they went on to win the European Champions League for the first time.
I believe this is the first time that a Japanese and an Italian club team have faced each other in 12 years, since the 2013 Club World Championship, when the then Panasonic Panthers (now Osaka Bulleteon) faced Trentino (Trentino won 3-0, and by the way, Perugia's L. Coraci and MB Sole were in the starting lineup for Trentino when they faced Panasonic).
I think the difference in strength between Japan and Italy has definitely narrowed since then. Even though it's just a friendly match, I'm looking forward to an exciting match.
Photo: Volleyball World
English 
Japanese