| | Event type

Volleyball, Men

Date	27 August – 9 September 1972
Status	Olympic
Location	Volleyballhalle, Olympiapark, München
Participants	140 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

The event had a different format compared to the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, with 12 teams competing in two pools of six. The qualifying standards were as follows: last two Olympic champions (USSR, Japan), top three at the 1970 World Championships (GDR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia replacing Japan), the host nation (Fed. Republic of Germany), the African Champion (Tunisia), the Asian Champion (Korea replacing Japan), the top two at the 1967 Pan-American Games (Cuba, Brazil), and two more places were determined in a Paris qualifying tournament (Romania, Polan). The top two teams in each pool were advanced to the semi-finals, with six matches used to determine final placements.

The USSR had won both gold medals in the Olympics, but had not won the Worlds since 1962, although they were European Champions in 1971. The 1970 World Champions were the East Germans – the GDR, represented mostly by players from Sportclub Leipzig. Japan had won a bronze medal in 1964, a silver medal in 1968, and a bronze medal at the 1970 Worlds. Japan and the Soviets won the pools with undefeated records, and Bulgaria and East Germany (GDR) also advanced to the semis. Both semi-finals were close, with Japan needing five sets to defeat Bulgaria, while the GDR defeated the Soviets in four. In the final, the GDR won the first set 15-11, but Japan came back to win the final three sets fairly easily, crushing the East Germans, 15-2, in the second set.

Pos	Number	Team	NOC	Matches Played	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	–	Japan	JPN	7	7	0	14	21-3	7.000	348-192	1.813	Gold
	1	Masayuki Minami		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Katsutoshi Nekoda		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Yuzo Nakamura		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Tetsuo Nishimoto		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Kenji Kimura		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Yoshihide Fukao		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Yasuhiro Noguchi		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Jungo Morita		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Tadayoshi Yokota		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Seiji Oko		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Tetsuo Sato		1	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Kenji Shimaoka		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Yasutaka Matsudaira
2	–	East Germany	GDR	7	5	2	12	16-8	2.000	295-256	1.152	Silver
	1	Horst Peter		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Horst Hagen		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Siegfried Schneider		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Wolfgang Löwe		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Rainer Tscharke		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Eckehard Pietzsch		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Arnold Schulz		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Wolfgang Maibohm		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Wolfgang Weise		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Jürgen Maune		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Rudi Schumann		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Wolfgang Webner		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Herbert Jenter
3	–	Soviet Union	URS	7	6	1	13	19-6	3.167	340-286	1.189	Bronze
	1	Yury Poyarkov		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Valery Kravchenko		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Yefim Chulak		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Yevgeny Lapinsky		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Vladimir Putyatov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Viktor Borshch		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Vladimir Patkin		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Leonid Zayko		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Aleksandr Saprykin		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Yury Starunsky		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Vyacheslav Domani		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Vladimir Kondra		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Yury Chesnokov
4	–	Bulgaria	BUL	7	4	3	11	15-14	1.071	386-347	1.112
	1	Aleksandar Trenev		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Tsano Tsanov		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Dimitar Zlatanov		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Ivan Ivanov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Kiril Slavov		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Zdravko Simeonov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Lachezar Stoyanov		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Dimitar Karov		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Ivan Dimitrov		1	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Emil Valchev		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Brunko Iliev		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Emil Trenev		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Todor Simov
5	–	Romania	ROU	7	4	3	11	14-10	1.400	300-286	1.049
	1	Gabriel Udișteanu		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Gyula Bartha		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Cornel Oroș		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Laurențiu Dumănoiu		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	William Schreiber		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Marian Stamate		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Romeo Enescu		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Cristian Ion		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Viorel Bălaș		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Stelian Moculescu		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Mircea Tutovan		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Nicolae Sotir
6	–	Czechoslovakia	TCH	7	4	3	11	15-9	1.667	321-274	1.172
	1	Lubomír Zajíček		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Miroslav Nekola		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Štefan Pipa		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Vladimír Petlák		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Jaroslav Penc		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Jaroslav Stančo		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Milan Řezníček		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Jaroslav Tomáš		1	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Milan Vápenka		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Zdeněk Groessl		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Pavel Schenk		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Drahomír Koudelka		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Karel Láznička
7	–	Republic of Korea	KOR	7	3	4	10	10-13	0.769	284-270	1.052
	1	Choi Jong-Ok		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Jin Jun-Tak		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Kim Geon-Bong		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Jeong Dong-Gi		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Lee Yong-Gwan		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Lee Seon-Gu		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Kim Gwi-Hwan		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Kim Chung-Han		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Park Gi-Won		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Gang Man-Su		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Lee Chun-Pyo DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Lee In DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Lee Sung
8	–	Brazil	BRA	7	2	5	9	9-19	0.474	316-373	0.847
	1	Bebeto de Freitas		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Aderval Arvani		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	João Jens		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Jorge Delano		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Antônio Carlos Moreno		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Zeco		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Décio Cattaruzzi		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Celso Kalache		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Negreli		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Alexandre Abeid		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Paulo Russo		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Mário Procópio		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Valderbi Romani
9	–	Poland	POL	6	2	4	8	11-12	0.917	282-281	1.004
	1	Jan Such		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Alojzy Świderek		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Bronisław Bebel		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Edward Skorek		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Włodzimierz Stefański		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Wiesław Gawłowski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Zdzisław Ambroziak		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Stanisław Gościniak		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Ryszard Bosek		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Stanisław Iwaniak		1	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Zbigniew Zarzycki		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Marek Karbarz		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Tadeusz Szlagor
10	–	Cuba	CUB	6	2	4	8	6-16	0.375	234-299	0.783
	1	Antonio Rodríguez		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Carlos Dilaut		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Ernesto Martínez		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Alfredo Figueredo		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Diego Lapera		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Pedro Delgado		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Luis Calderón		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Luis Jiménez		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Jorge Pérez Vento		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Enrique Fortes		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Lorenzo Martínez		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Orlando Samuels		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Dieter Grund
11	–	West Germany	FRG	6	1	5	7	7-16	0.438	222-304	0.730
	1	Wolfgang Simon		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Uwe Zitranski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Volker Paulus		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Klaus-Dieter Buschle		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Bernard Endrich		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Hans-Georg von der Ohe		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Hatto Nolte		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Toni Rimrod		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	9	Ulf Tütken		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Klaus Meetz		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Hans-Ulrich Graßhoff		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Rüdiger Hild		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		Manfred Kindermann
12	–	Tunisia	TUN	6	0	6	6	1-18	0.056	124-284	0.437
	1	Oueil Behi Mohamed		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	2	Mohamed Ben Sheikh		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	3	Moncef Ben Soltane		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	4	Samir Lamouchi		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	5	Hamouda Ben Massaoud		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	6	Raja Hayder		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	7	Abdel Aziz Derbal		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	8	Naceur Bounatouf		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	10	Abdel Aziz Bousarsar		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	11	Rafik Ben Amor		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
	12	Naceur Ben Othman		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–
Coach		?

Preliminary Round

Date	27 August – 6 September 1972

Group A

Date	27 August – 5 September 1972
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Soviet Union	URS	5	0	10	15-3	5.000	257-196	1.311
2	Bulgaria	BUL	4	1	9	13-8	1.625	294-235	1.251
3	Czechoslovakia	TCH	3	2	8	11-6	1.833	230-205	1.122
4	Republic of Korea	KOR	2	3	7	7-10	0.700	209-197	1.061
5	Poland	POL	1	4	6	8-12	0.667	237-259	0.915
6	Tunisia	TUN	0	5	5	0-15	0.000	90-225	0.400

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	27 Aug 10:00	Soviet Union	URS	15-10, 15-6, 15-4	Tunisia	TUN
Match #2	27 Aug 14:00	Czechoslovakia	TCH	15-13, 16-14, 15-8	Poland	POL
Match #3	27 Aug 19:30	Bulgaria	BUL	16-18, 15-6, 15-9, 15-13	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #4	29 Aug 10:00	Poland	POL	15-6, 15-11, 15-1	Tunisia	TUN
Match #5	29 Aug 14:00	Soviet Union	URS	17-15, 15-12, 15-4	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #6	29 Aug 19:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-11, 15-11, 12-15, 14-16, 15-9	Czechoslovakia	TCH
Match #7	31 Aug 10:00	Czechoslovakia	TCH	15-11, 15-4, 15-10	Tunisia	TUN
Match #8	31 Aug 14:00	Republic of Korea	KOR	15-7, 13-15, 15-11, 15-6	Poland	POL
Match #9	31 Aug 19:30	Soviet Union	URS	9-15, 15-10, 15-11, 15-10	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #10	02 Sep 10:00	Republic of Korea	KOR	15-1, 15-3, 15-1	Tunisia	TUN
Match #11	02 Sep 14:00	Soviet Union	URS	15-10, 15-10, 15-12	Czechoslovakia	TCH
Match #12	02 Sep 19:30	Bulgaria	BUL	14-16, 12-15, 15-7, 15-3, 15-10	Poland	POL
Match #13	05 Sep 10:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-10, 15-5, 15-7	Tunisia	TUN
Match #14	05 Sep 14:00	Czechoslovakia	TCH	15-11, 15-5, 15-13	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #15	05 Sep 15:30	Soviet Union	URS	11-15, 15-12, 15-12, 10-15, 15-13	Poland	POL

Group B

Date	28 August – 6 September 1972
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Japan	JPN	5	0	10	15-0	∞	225-95	2.368
2	East Germany	GDR	4	1	9	12-4	3.000	200-162	1.235
3	Romania	ROU	2	3	7	8-9	0.889	201-213	0.944
4	Brazil	BRA	2	3	7	9-13	0.692	273-280	0.975
5	Cuba	CUB	2	3	7	6-13	0.462	212-254	0.835
6	West Germany	FRG	0	5	5	4-15	0.267	163-270	0.604

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	28 Aug 10:00	East Germany	GDR	15-7, 15-13, 15-7	Cuba	CUB
Match #2	28 Aug 14:00	Japan	JPN	15-4, 15-5, 15-6	Romania	ROU
Match #3	28 Aug 19:30	Brazil	BRA	15-7, 15-8, 17-19, 6-15, 15-9	West Germany	FRG
Match #4	30 Aug 10:00	East Germany	GDR	15-5, 7-15, 16-14, 15-10	Brazil	BRA
Match #5	30 Aug 14:00	Japan	JPN	15-10, 15-9, 15-5	Cuba	CUB
Match #6	30 Aug 19:30	Romania	ROU	15-9, 15-1, 15-8	West Germany	FRG
Match #7	01 Sep 10:00	Brazil	BRA	18-16, 11-15, 15-7, 11-15, 15-12	Romania	ROU
Match #8	01 Sep 14:00	Japan	JPN	15-4, 15-2, 15-6	East Germany	GDR
Match #9	01 Sep 19:30	Cuba	CUB	15-8, 15-11, 10-15, 12-15, 15-8	West Germany	FRG
Match #10	03 Sep 10:00	East Germany	GDR	15-7, 15-6, 15-4	West Germany	FRG
Match #11	03 Sep 14:00	Japan	JPN	15-7, 15-13, 15-11	Brazil	BRA
Match #12	03 Sep 19:30	Romania	ROU	15-7, 17-15, 15-13	Cuba	CUB
Match #13	05 Sep 9:00	Japan	JPN	15-3, 15-6, 15-4	West Germany	FRG
Match #14	06 Sep 19:30	Cuba	CUB	16-14, 6-15, 15-7, 7-15, 15-9	Brazil	BRA
Match #15	06 Sep 21:00	East Germany	GDR	15-10, 15-12, 15-7	Romania	ROU

Classification Round 5-8

Date	8 September 1972
Format	Classification matches.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	08 Sep 10:00	Romania	ROU	15-12, 15-7, 15-8	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #2	08 Sep 14:00	Czechoslovakia	TCH	15-8, 15-6, 15-1	Brazil	BRA

Semi-Finals

Date	8 September 1972
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	08 Sep 15:30	Japan	JPN	13-15, 9-15, 15-9, 15-9, 15-12	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #2	08 Sep 19:30	East Germany	GDR	15-6, 15-8, 13-15, 15-9	Soviet Union	URS

Final Round

Date	8 – 9 September 1972
Format	Medal round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match 1/2	09 Sep 21:00	Japan	JPN	15-11, 2-15, 15-10, 15-10	East Germany	GDR
Match 3/4	09 Sep 19:30	Soviet Union	URS	15-11, 15-8, 15-13	Bulgaria	BUL
Match 5/6	09 Sep 15:30	Romania	ROU	8-15, 15-7, 15-10, 16-14	Czechoslovakia	TCH
Match 7/8	09 Sep 14:00	Republic of Korea	KOR	18-16, 15-7, 15-5	Brazil	BRA
Match 9/10	09 Sep 10:00	Poland	POL	15-2, 15-7, 15-13	Cuba	CUB
Match 11/12	08 Sep 21:00	West Germany	FRG	15-5, 14-16, 15-4, 15-9	Tunisia	TUN