Dubai: The president of the UAE Volleyball Association (UAE VA) has welcomed the tough draw given to hosts UAE for next month’s 2015 FIVB Men’s Under-23 World Championship in Dubai.

The UAE will take on top-ranked Brazil, former world champions Italy, Argentina, South Korea and Egypt in Pool A of the 12-team competition. Pool B will see Asian champions Iran in action along with Russia, Cuba, Mexico, Tunisia and Turkey.

The draw for the competition, which will be played at Al Nasr and Al Wasl clubs between August 24 and 31, took place on Monday, with UAE VA President Yousuf Al Mulla welcoming the challenging fixtures the hosts will face.

“Honestly, this championship is going to be a huge learning curve for our youngsters. They will be exposed to different schools of volleyball,” he told Gulf News.

“Brazil and Argentina have always been the powerhouses in South America, while Italy have been dominant in Europe and South Korea have been competitive among Asian countries. So this is something we are going to look forward to as we set out to prepare this young squad for future challenges ahead.

“One of the directives before the national team coach is to expose these young players to different schools of play, and we could not have asked for a better platform to test our team.”

The UAE’s Algerian coach Murad Sannoun, who is well-known in the region for his previous associations with Al Nasr and Al Ain, chose his squad at the beginning of the year.

On Wednesday, the team and support staff are scheduled to travel to Serbia for an intense three-week training camp and five friendly matches.

“The team has been meeting regularly even during the month of Ramadan. But now it is time for some serious and concentrated training that is meant to help them get match-ready for such an important tournament,” Al Mulla said.

“We expect them to make the most of this opportunity of participating in such an important competition that can only add to their experience of playing against some of the best teams in the world.”

At the end of the preliminary round-robin stage, the top two teams from each pool will qualify for the semi-finals, while the remaining eight nations will play for classification.

“Our intention is to have a competitive team that can take on the mighty volleyball nations. First, they need to make the best use of their time in Serbia and use that experience to become a better squad in all departments,” Al Mulla added.