The tournament will take place until September 30, with matches set to be held in Turin, Florence, Milan, Rome, Bari and Bologna in Italy and Ruse, Sofia and Varna in Bulgaria.

Turin will host the final.

This year's event will be the 19th edition of the competition and follows a record breaking Championships in 2014 which saw more than half a million fans attend across 103 matches. 

Last time out Poland won their second World Championship title and their first as hosts, but they will have a tough fight on their hands to repeat the feat with the world's 24 best teams set to battle it out for the top prize. 

Rivals Brazil will be looking to regain the title that they last won in 2010.

That victory marked the third World Championship triumph in succession for the South Americans, while this year's co-hosts Italy will also be looking to snatch the title that they last won in 1998.

Just like Brazil, that last win for Italy was also their third in succession and they will surely be hoping a home crowd can help spur them on to a fourth win.

Only one country, Russia's predecessor the Soviet Union, has won the world title more than three times, at six. 

The tournament will begin with a group stage featuring four pools.

The first, Pool A, contains Argentina, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, co-hosts Italy, Japan and Slovenia. 

Pool B features Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France and The Netherlands, while Pool C sees Australia, Cameroon, Russia, Serbia, Tunisia and the United States placed together. 

Pool D features co-hosts Bulgaria, Cuba, Finland, Iran, defending champions Poland and Puerto Rico. 

The FIVB will be hoping for crowds at least as big as during the last competition in 2014, when a record breaking 62,000 fans watched the Opening Ceremony and first match. 

This year's tournament will begin tomorrow with Italy versus Japan from Pool A playing in Rome. 

The only other match on Sunday will see the other co-hosts Bulgaria face Finland in Pool D.