The 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship will be the 37th edition of the biannual continental tournament in men's national water polo teams, organised by Europe's governing aquatics body, European Aquatics. The tournament will take place from 10 to 25 January 2026. This edition will mark the 100 year anniversary of the championships.
The competition will be held in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, for the third time.[1] This will be the second edition to have different hosts for both genders after European Aquatics made the change permanent in March 2025. This edition will also witness a new format, introducing a second group stage as opposed to an extended knockout round.[2]
16 teams will take part for the sixth time. The top eight teams, including hosts Serbia, from the 2024 version qualified automatically, while the remaining eights teams progressed via qualification. Türkiye qualified after a 6 year drought, while Germany failed to qualify on merit for the first time.
Belgrade was given the hosting rights on 13 May 2022.[1] This will be Serbia's third time hosting after 2006 and 2016. Serbia had originally been given the women's event as well, but decided not to host it in order to focus on the men's championship.[3]
Format
A new system will be used for this tournament. The new format was unveiled in March 2025. This is the third different format in three editions.[4] Despite some slight changes, the format is very adjacent to the format previously used for the European Handball Championship when the tournament still had 16 teams (the format has been discontinued due to the European Handball Championship expanding to 24 teams). Head coach of Croatia, Ivica Tucak, supports the format change, saying it gives teams a second chance to come back if they stumble earlier in the tournament.[5]
Group stage
In each group there will be two teams from the last tournament and two teams from the qualifiers. They will play a round-robin in their groups. The top three teams of each group will advance to the second group stage. The top three teams of each group will advance to the second group stage (Group A & Group C in Group E and Group B & Group D in Group F) with all results are carried over. The four-bottom ranked-teams will play in placement games.
Second group stage
The advancing teams will play the opponents from the other group in the second group stage. From the second group stage, the top-two ranked teams of each group advance to the semifinals, all other teams will play in placement games.
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, the four remaining teams progress to the knockout stage. Two semifinals and a final will determine who wins the championship.
Regarding the teams, there is one change to the line-up, with Türkiye returning after a six year drought. The Turks replaced two-time champions, Germany, who missed out for the first time since 1962 and failed to qualify for the first time ever.[6]
The draw was held at 19:00 CET on 13 September 2025 at the Beli dvor in Belgrade, Serbia.[11][12] Serbian journalist, Marija Kilibarda, was the host for the draw. Before the draw began, speeches were done by Serbian water polo federation president and local organising committee chair, Viktor Jelenic, and European Aquatics president, Antonio Silva. The guests were Serbian Olympic water polo players, Filip Filipović and Milan Aleksić, who assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule).
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 2 points for a penalty shootout win, 1 point for a penalty shootout loss, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches.
If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a drawing of lots will decide the outcome.
First match(es) will be played: 10 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 10 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 10 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference. (H) Host
First match(es) will be played: 10 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
Classification round
Pos
Team
Pld
W
PSW
PSL
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
1
A4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
B4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
B4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
D4
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
First match(es) will be played: January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
Main round
All points obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advance as well are carried over.
First match(es) will be played: January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
Knockout stage
Semi-finals
Final
January
January
January
Third place
January
Final standings
Rank
Team
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Preparations
A dedicated website was created on 25 August 2025.[14] During the 14th Great Sports Fair of Serbia from September 26 to 28, 2025, at Ada Ciganlija, the slogan for the tournament was unveiled, being the phrase Power that unites.[15]
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Serbia 
