| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |  Serbia |
| Venue(s) | 1 (in 1 host city) |
| Dates | 10–25 January |
| Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
The 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship will be the 37th running of the tournament. It will be held in Belgrade, Serbia. [1]
A new system will be used for this tournament. The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four teams. 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 (Groups A&C in Group E and Groups B&D in Group F) with all results are carried over. The teams will play the opponents from the other group. The four-bottom ranked-teams will play in placement games. 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. [2]
Sixteen teams will be able to compete at the main event. They are broken up as follows:
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. [3]
| Event | Date | Location | Quotas | Nation(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 13 May 2022 | – | 1 | Serbia |
| 2024 European Championship | 4–16 January |  Croatia | 7 |  Spain Croatia  Italy  Hungary  Greece  Montenegro  Romania |
| Qualifiers | 8–11 June 2025 |  Kranj | 2 |  Netherlands Slovenia |
 Istanbul | 2 |  Slovakia Türkiye | ||
 Tbilisi | 2 | Georgia  Israel | ||
 Gzira | 2 |  France Malta |
| Team | Qualification method | Date of qualification | App | First | Last | Streak | Best placement in tournament | Rank [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia | Host nation | 13 May 2022 | 11th | 2006 | 2024 | 11 | Champions (2006, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) | TBD |
| Croatia | Top eight in 2024 | 8 January 2024 | 17th | 1993 | 17 | Champions (2010, 2022) | TBD | |
| Hungary | 36th | 1926 | 30 | Champions (Thirteen times) [A] | TBD | |||
| Italy | 35th | 1927 | 34 | Champions (1947, 1993, 1995) | TBD | |||
| Spain | 31st | 27 | Champions (2024) | TBD | ||||
| Montenegro | 10 January 2024 | 10th | 2008 | 10 | Champions (2008) | TBD | ||
| Greece | 11 January 2024 | 21st | 1970 | 19 | Fourth place (1999, 2016) | TBD | ||
| Romania | 27th | 1954 | 14 | Fourth place (1993, 2006) | TBD | |||
| Slovakia | Top two in Group B | 9 June 2025 | 12th | 1993 | 6 | Seventh place (2003) | TBD | |
| Georgia | Top two in Group C | 10 June 2025 | 6th | 2016 | 6 | Eighth place (2022) | TBD | |
| Israel | 3rd | 2022 | 3 | Twelveth place (2022) | TBD | |||
| Netherlands | Top two in Group A | 31st | 1927 | 6 | Champions (1927) | TBD | ||
| Slovenia | 6th | 1999 | 3 | Eleventh place (1999) | TBD | |||
| France | Top two in Group D | 20th | 1927 | 7 | Runners-up (1927) | TBD | ||
| Malta | 6th | 2016 | 6 | Fourteenth place (2022) | TBD | |||
| Türkiye | Top two in Group B | 11 June 2025 | 4th | 2016 | 2020 | 1 | Twelveth place (2020) | TBD |
Similar to 2016, the Štark Arena will be used for the entire competition. [5]
| Belgrade | ||
|---|---|---|
| Štark Arena | ||
| Capacity: 18,386 | ||
 | ||
